Pharma dose CMOs face growth slowdown, but opportunities lie ahead

Contract manufacturing revenues in the pharmaceutical finished dose sector witnessed a significant slowdown over the past financial year. Challenging market conditions, driven by drug pricing pressures, regulatory shifts, and geopolitical tensions, have reshaped the landscape, offering both hurdles and opportunities for contract manufacturing organisations (CMOs) to adapt and innovate amidst global generic shortages, reveals GlobalData.

GlobalData’s expert trend report, “Contract Pharmaceutical Dose Manufacturing Industry: Composition, Size, Market Share, and Outlook – 2024 Edition,” reveals that the slowdown marks a sharp contrast to the rapid growth seen in 2020-22.

Adam Bradbury, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “Many commercial dose manufacturers have experienced low growth, with difficult business conditions generated by drug pricing and reimbursement constraints, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and geopolitical conflicts. Despite the ongoing challenges in the geopolitical landscape, inflation is declining, and biotech funding is showing signs of recovery, giving hope for higher growth in future years.”

Global generic shortages have worsened over the past year, leaving patients without access to essential medications. Many governments are now intervening to prevent escalating shortages by stockpiling certain essential drugs, investing in domestic pharma manufacturing, or considering allowing price increases for generics to encourage their production. CMOs with a capacity to make generics – including less technically innovative manufacturers – have an opportunity to help resolve these shortages and win business.

Bradbury concludes, “Two major deals, by Catalent and Recipharm, are reshaping the dose CMO landscape. Novo Nordisk’s parent company is acquiring Catalent to improve Novo’s supply of GLP-1 receptor agonists, Ozempic and Wegovy. Novo Nordisk will purchase three of Catalent’s fill-finish sites (Anagni, Italy; Bloomington, Indiana, US; and Brussels, Belgium) as part of the deal. Also, Blue Wolf Capital Partners, a US private equity firm, acquired seven of Recipharm’s oral solid, semi-solid and liquid sites in a deal that closed in September 2024. Blue Wolf is forming a CDMO from the acquired sites.”

Edits made by EP News Bureau