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
India’s PI Industries has agreed to acquire UK-based Plant Health Care (PHC), a specialist in protein and peptide technology for agricultural applications, for £32 million. This is subject to a UK court process, which, among other things, requires approval by shareholders holding at least 75% of the shares. It is expected to be completed by Q2 of the 2025 fiscal year.
Almac Group has announced the completion of two new purpose-built facilities at its headquarters in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. The total investment is about $400 million and is part of a global investment programme announced in June 2022.
One is a 2,600 m2 GMP facility that more than doubles peptide API manufacturing capacity. This “will enhance synthesis, purification and isolation capabilities and meet anticipated demand for clinical development and commercial products”, the company said.
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.
In response to growing demand worldwide, WuXi AppTec has commissioned two new peptide plants, one each at its Changzhou and Taixing sites in China. Both use digital operation systems with automated solvent delivery, in order to optimise production consistency, minimise human errors and reduce production cycle time.
This investment will increase the company’s total solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) reactor volume to 32,000 litres. It also marks the official launch of Taixing as WuXi AppTec’s fifth API production sites.
WuXi STA has added two 2,000 L reactors and a large-scale continuous purification system for peptide manufacturing at its Changzhou campus, bringing the total reactor volume for solid-phase peptide synthesis to over 10,000 L. It has also added a new system that features 300-DAC twin columns for continuous purification of kilogram-scale peptides and oligonucleotides, with faster turnaround times and lower solvent consumption.
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.
