To help keep pace with the demand for GLP-1 therapies, CordenPharma has announced a sizeable $980 million investment in its U.S. and European sites.
CordenPharma on Tuesday announced a new strategic investment of approximately €900 million (or around $981 million) to expand its peptide technology platform, in a bid to meet the ever-growing demand for GLP-1 therapies.
This new funding, which will be spent over the next three years, will allow the Switzerland-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) to construct a third large-scale manufacturing facility in its Colorado location. The money will also allow the CDMO to add manufacturing trains to its existing facilities
CordenPharma’s U.S. expansion is explicitly intended to keep pace with the “rapidly increasing demand” in GLP-1 receptor agonists, according to the company’s news announcement.
Meanwhile, in Europe, CordenPharma’s expansion plans involve a new state-of-the-art peptide manufacturing facility that will help the CDMO serve early clinical to late-stage commercial customers. This new plant will be “in the heart of Europe,” though the company did not reveal an exact location.
Tuesday’s strategic investment is CordenPharma’s largest commitment to date and will allow the Swiss CDMO to “profoundly strengthen” its capability to “provide valuable and much-needed support to innovators for the benefit of patients,” Michael Quirmbach, CordenPharma Group president and CEO, said in a statement.
Constructions are expected to be completed by 2027 and the new facilities are set to be operational by 2028, according to reporting from Endpoints News. Quirmbach expects the U.S. and Europe expansions to add around 400 new jobs to its roster.
CordenPharma’s expansion comes as the GLP-1 market is poised to breach $100 billion in value in the next 10 years—despite substantial headwinds.
Last month, data analytics and consulting firm GlobalData estimated that the market could hit annual sales of $111 billion by 2033 in the seven major markets. Other analysts are more optimistic. According to a May 2024 article from Reuters, BMO Capital Markets said the obesity market could reach $150 million by the early 2030s, while Leerink had a higher forecast of $158 billion by 2032.
Still, several substantial barriers could hold the market back, chief of which is supply issues. As per the GlobalData briefing last month, the top GLP-1 brands continue to be in shortage in Europe, Australia and in the U.S. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly—the two market frontrunners—have each made substantial investments to boost their manufacturing capacity, but demand continues to outpace supply.
Cost also poses a significant challenge to the market, according to GlobalData, which stated that most GLP-1 treatments are prohibitively expensive, especially in the U.S.
