CordenPharma invests €900M in expanding peptide platform to meet GLP-1 drug demand

18-Jul-2024 - Last updated on 18-Jul-2024 at 13:36 GMT

CordenPharma, a US-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), will be making a €900 million investment over the next three years into expanding its peptide technology platform at its US and Europe sites.

The expansion will cover existing facilities as well as brand new constructions. CordenPharma aims for all its facilities to meet the most stringent quality and technical standards for the manufacturing of peptides with pharmaceutical purposes, including biological license application (BLA) requirements to facilitate the approval of biological products.

CordenPharma’s facilities in the Colorado, US site will expand to increase its large-scale peptide manufacturing capacity. With this expansion, the company intends to meet the increasing demand for GLP-1 peptides, a drug class used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity.

In Europe, the CDMO is planning to build a greenfield site for small to large-scale peptide development and manufacturing, which will be fully integrated with the company’s global network of current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) facilities.

CordenPharma has an ambitious target to reach €1 billion in sales for its peptide platform by 2028, establishing itself as a market leader in both injectable and oral peptide manufacturing. In 2023, the company reported €880 million in total sales.

Corden Pharma currently has multiple long-term manufacturing contracts related to GLP-1 peptides, totaling around €3 billion.

Keeping up with GLP-1 demand

Demand for GLP-1 drugs has been high since the FDA approved Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy as a treatment for chronic weight management in 2021. Since the launch, Novo has been struggling to keep up with the supply, partly due to issues at the manufacturing facilities of Catalent, the CDMO responsible for filling the Wegovy self-injection pens.

The demand for GLP-1 drugs has continued growing following the FDA approval of Ozempic, another GLP-1 drug developed by Novo, for chronic weight management in June last year. Previously, the drug had only been available as a treatment for type 2 diabetes.

The increasing popularity of Ozempic as a weight loss drug has led to a massive shortage for diabetic patients, who need the drug more urgently. This situation has sparked controversy in the US, where social media influencers have been promoting the drug as a weight loss solution.

Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 competitors, Mounjaro and Zepbound, have also been facing supply shortages as demand for the weight management drugs soared. Roche and Pfizer are currently in the clinical development stage with their own GLP-1 drugs.

Earlier this year, Novo Nordisk acquired three manufacturing sites from Catalent. However, it may take years until the gap between supply and demand for weight loss medications can fully close. This represents a big opportunity for manufacturers such as CordenPharma to step up their peptide manufacturing capacity and meet the growing demand for GLP-1 and other peptide drugs.