May_CDMO Topics｜Asia CDMOs are back with new opportunities

Commentator: Shin Chung-chul, Director of Health Center, Ji-Pu Industrial Trend Research Institute

The global biopharmaceutical CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) foundry business is mainly concentrated in Europe and the U.S. because Europe and the U.S. is not only one of the world's largest pharmaceutical sales markets, but also an important industrial cluster for biopharmaceutical R&D. The types of biopharmaceutical CDMO business can be briefly divided into two categories, as shown in Table 1, which are CDMO mass production foundry manufacturing with commercial scale and CDMO clinical candidate new drug manufacturing. The types of business of biopharmaceutical CDMOs, as shown in Table 1, can be briefly categorized into two main types, namely, CDMO mass-production foundry manufacturing with commercial scale, and CDMO pilot-production foundry manufacturing for new drugs on clinical waiting list. It is estimated that there are currently more than 300 CDMO manufacturers in the market, and the CDMO market is still relatively fragmented, with the total revenue of the top 5 CDMO manufacturers accounting for 15% of the overall market size. The CDMO supply chain continues to thrive in the midst of consolidation, and in addition to cross-domain integration of the value chain of biotechnology-based R&D of new medicines, it provides services for raw material drug development (chemical, biological, or cellular genetics), drug formulation, and drug delivery system (drug formulation and drug delivery). In addition to the cross-domain integration of the biotechnology R&D value chain to provide API development (chemical, biopharmaceutical or cytogenetic drugs), drug delivery system, clinical trial solutions (contract research organization), filling and packaging, and cold-chain logistics to support drug development and manufacturing services, another focus of attention is the development trend of vertical integration of the supply chain of manufacturing equipment, with the acquisition of Thermo Fisher Scientific by the U.S. company Thermo Fisher Scientific. Another focus of attention is the development trend of vertical integration in the manufacturing equipment supply chain, represented by the acquisition of Patheon by Thermo Fisher Scientific, the acquisition of Mirus Bio by Millipore Sigma, and the acquisition of Biovectra by Agilent, which are manufacturing equipment suppliers that have entered the CDMO industry.