CordenPharma Expands its Peptide Platform in the US and Europe

CordenPharma, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), announced on July 16, 2024 that it is investing approximately €900 million (US$983 million) to expand its peptide platform at its Colorado, US, site and in Europe. The investment will be made over three years, cover existing facilities and new construction, and be made in parallel in the United States and Europe. New construction will be integrated within the company’s current manufacturing practice facilities.

The company will add large-scale peptide manufacturing capacity to the Colorado site to meet increased demand from multiple long-term contracts. Existing manufacturing trains will also be increased.

A greenfield site will be constructed in Europe for small- to large-scale peptide development and manufacturing. The site will serve the company’s customers from early clinical to late-stage commercial manufacturing.

“These investments will profoundly strengthen our ability to provide valuable and much needed support to innovators for the benefit of patients. We are honored by the trust our customers have placed in us to deliver expert outsourcing for large multiyear contracts, and our team is proud to contribute decades of peptide manufacturing experience towards these transformative new medicines,” Michael Quirmbach, president and CEO of the CordenPharma Group, said in a press release (1). “In addition, the strong commitment and support of our shareholder Astorg demonstrates their strategic vision for CordenPharma to become the leading CDMO for complex modalities, such as peptides, by offering fully integrated end-to-end services from APIs to drug products (for both injectable and oral peptides).”

“We are proud of what Michael and the CordenPharma team have achieved through their striving for operational excellence, customer service and ambitious growth. We are excited about the opportunities ahead and to further strengthen the company’s peptide offering across the full drug lifecycle and value chain,” said Signe Michel, managing director at Astorg, in the release.

“CordenPharma has a unique opportunity to reinforce its leadership position in peptides with unmatched capacity and performance in large-scale manufacturing,” Judith Charpentier, co-head Flagship Fund and head of Healthcare at Astorg commented, in the release. “With the company’s proven track record and our investor experience in pharmaceutical services, we feel confident that our latest commitment will help the company seize this opportunity.”

CordenPharma, which was acquired by the private equity firm, Astorg, in 2022, has a €1 billion sales target for its peptide platform by 2028. In March 2024, the company announced that it was expanding capacity at its Frankfurt, Germany, site to accommodate the manufacture of early clinical-phase peptide APIs. The expansion was scheduled to begin operations in the second quarter of 2024 with authorization by German authorities expected to be completed in the second half of 2024 (2).

The CDMO provides end-to-end services with a focus on peptides, oligonucleotides, customized lipid excipients, lipid nanoparticles, sterile injectables, and has a supply of both highly potent and regular potency small molecules.

References

1. CordenPharma. CordenPharma Invests €900m in Transformational Peptide Platform Expansion in the USA & Europe. Press Release, March 16, 2024. https://cordenpharma.com/articles/press-release-cordenpharma-invests-900-million-euros-in-transformational-peptide-platform-expansion-in-usa-and-europe/
2. CordenPharma. CordenPharma Expands Early Clinical Peptide Manufacturing to Launch IND-Targeted Peptide API to Injectable Drug Product Integrated Offer. Press Release, March 6, 2024. https://cordenpharma.com/articles/cordenpharma-expands-early-clinical-peptide-manufacturing-to-launch-ind-targeted-peptide-api-to-injectable-drug-product-integrated-offer/