CordenPharma is to spend about €900 million over the next three years to expand its peptide technology platform, with investments on both sides of the Atlantic. This will be the largest strategic investment to date for the company, which is owned by pan-European private equity firm Astorg and aims to achieve €1 billion/year in sales from peptides

Following an expansion and qualification phase, the consortium formed by Wacker Chemie and CordenPharma in Germany officially entered ‘pandemic readiness’ for the production of mRNA-based vaccines as of 1 June. They are now in stand-by phase and will receive a fee from the government for keeping their capacity and expertise available for at least five years. In all, they will be able to produce 80 million doses/year at short notice.

CordenPharma has announced the commissioning of new GMP capacities at its Frankfurt site to manufacture early clinical phase peptide APIs. The investment is still being finalised, but will be fully operational in Q2 and authorised by German authorities in 2H.

CordenPharma has begun commercial peptide production with additional capacity at upgraded facilities at its site in Colorado, which is the world’s largest solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) facility. About 60 new jobs have been created with more potentially to follow. 

The company had begun capital investments in early 2023 as part of a general worldwide expansion that also includes sterile injectables and LNP formulation and fill-finish capacity at other sites. New additions at the Colorado site include: 

CordenPharma is entering synthetic oligonucleotide manufacturing via an investment at its CordenPharma Colorado site. This will draw on its solid-phase peptide manufacturing experience and downstream processing capabilities to offer a fully integrated drug substance and drug product offer.

Bachem has signed a new framework agreement to provide large volumes of peptides to an unnamed customer following a joint development project. This covers “a committed volume at an equivalent value of over CHF 500 million for the five-year period of 2027-2031, with significant upside potential,” the company said.

This follows recent deals a previous large-volume contract for another unnamed customer worth CHF 175 million in 2023-4. The deal was announced in September 2022 and subsequently upgraded with a further work order for a minimum total of CHF 1 billion from 2025 to 2029.

CordenPharma has signed a multi-year agreement for the contract manufacture of a large-volume launch peptide at its former Roche facility in Boulder, Colorado. This will begin in 2023 and will potentially be worth about $1 billion, depending on actual production levels required. The customer has not been named and no further details are being disclosed.