top-10-contract-development-and-manufacturing-organizations-2025
Top 10 Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations 2025

Top 10 Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations 2025

Posted inGenetics

A July report by a team of Jefferies analysts paints an upbeat picture for contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs). Miyabi Yamakita and colleagues reported rising demand for the services of CDMOs, especially those focused on producing biologics.

According to Jefferies, the overall CDMO market is expected to grow from $173 billion in 2024 to $185 billion this year and $323 billion by 2033—a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2%, according to data from Statista and company forecasts cited by Jefferies.

However, demand for biologics CDMO services is growing ~15% per year, almost three times higher than demand for pharmaceuticals, and twice as high as demand for pharma CDMO services overall. Behind the projected growth is rising demand for antibody drugs and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). The antibody drug market alone is expected to nearly triple, rising 178% from $246 billion in 2024 to $685 billion in 2034–a CAGR of 10.8%.

The percentage of global pharmaceutical production outsourced to CDMOs has risen over the past decade from 34% in 2014 to 49% in 2023.

“As more antibody drugs reach commercialization, demand for mid- to large-scale manufacturing is rising, and long-term contracts are becoming a key growth driver. By 2030, these top-tier CDMOs are expected to capture a growing share of the biologics market, potentially exceeding 55%, as quality, scale, and reliability become critical differentiators,” Jefferies wrote.

While the report sees an optimistic future for CDMOs, a few challenges loom over the extent of future growth for the segment—notably, foreign exchange rates and the array of tariffs being implemented by the administration of President Donald Trump.

Addressing analysts on July 23 on the company’s quarterly earnings call, Stephen Williamson, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, said the year-over-year impact of tariffs and related foreign exchange fluctuations lowered adjusted operating income by five percent, and reduced adjusted gross margins by approximately 150 basis points (1.5%).

Lonza Group CEO Wolfgang Wienand, however, told analysts on his company’s earnings call that foreign exchange rates reduced sales by two percentage points and core EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) by 1.3 percentage points: “For the full year, assuming FX rates as of early July prevail for the remainder of 2025, we would expect an impact of negative 2.5% to negative 3.5% on sales and core EBITDA.”

Wienand said tariffs, however, have had less of an effect on Lonza.

“Our resilient CDMO business model and our geographically well-diversified global footprint, including a substantial presence in the U.S., largely shield us from potential U.S. tariffs, and at the same time, enables us to support our customers in navigating and minimizing the potential impact of such tariffs,” he said.

Eight of GEN’s ranked top 10 CDMOs grew revenue since last year’s A-List. Combined 2024 revenue of the top 10 CDMOs rose 5% to $31.763 billion from $30.237 billion. Over a two-year period, combined revenue rose nearly 13% from $28.22 billion in 2022.

Of the other two in the list, Recipharm revenue shrank after it spun out its inhaled and nasal drug-device business into a new company, Bespak, while MilliporeSigma / Merck KGaA saw its “Life Science Services” business unit, which includes CDMO activity, fall 8% in net sales year over year during 2024, citing demand fluctuations following the end of non-repeat projects occurring the previous year, plus unfavorable exchange rates.

Presented is this year’s Top 10 A-List of CDMOs. The companies are ranked by 2024 revenues, as disclosed by the companies in regulatory filings or in responses to GEN’s queries. Several of the CDMOs also furnished quarterly or half-year revenues for 2025.

In addition, for the first time with this year’s A-List, GEN also spotlights 10 “Up & Coming” CDMOs that are not yet large enough to rank within the top 10, based on recent news announcements ranging from facility openings to significant contracts (online only).

  1. Lonza Group

Basel, Switzerland

CHF 6.574 billion ($8.138 billion)1

  • CDMO operations finished H1 2025 with EBITDA of CHF 922 billion ($1.141 billion), up 21% from CHF 759 million (about $940 million) in H1 2024, on revenue that jumped 21% year-over-year to CHF 3.053 billion ($3.78 billion) from CHF 2.517 billion ($3.116 billion).2
  • Raised FY 2025 outlook for CDMO business to CER sales growth of 20-21% (up from “approaching 20%”) and a core EBITDA margin of 30-31% (up from “approaching 30%”).
  • Replaced its divisional structure with three CDMO units or “business platforms” (Integrated Biologics, Advanced Synthesis, and Specialized Modalities) as part of a simplified “One Lonza” organization that became effective April 1. The platforms constitute a “CDMO business” that excludes Lonza’s Capsules & Health Ingredients (CHI) business.
  • Completed selling its approximately 25,000 square-meter (269,098 square-foot) macromolecule manufacturing facility in China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City to Joinn Biologics US, a Richmond, CA-based entity of Chinese-based Joinn Laboratories.
  1. Thermo Fisher Scientific

Waltham, MA

$7 billion3

  • Finished Q2 2025 with net income of $1.618 billion, up 4% from Q2 2024, on revenue that rose 3% year-over-year, to $10.855 billion.
  • Released a study concluding that its Accelerator™ Drug Development platform, which integrates services for CDMOs and contract research organizations (CROs), can reduce oncology drug development timelines by up to nearly three years. The company-commissioned study was conducted by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. “The more complex the modality, the more time savings we realize,” Daniel Burch, MD, Thermo Fisher’s global head of biotech solutions, told GEN.
  • Agreed to acquire Solventum’s purification and filtration business for approximately $4.1 billion in cash, and to acquire Sanofi’s steriles manufacturing site in Ridgefield, NJ, for an undisclosed price.
  • Committed to investing $2 billion over four years toward supporting R&D and manufacturing needs for U.S. customers.
  1. Catalent

Bridgewater, NJ

$4.43 billion4

  • Acquired for $16.5 billion by Novo Holdings, the asset manager of the foundation that controls Novo Nordisk, in a deal completed on December 18, 2024. Novo Holdings has since sold three Catalent sites (Anagni, Italy; Brussels, Belgium; and Bloomington, IN) to Novo Nordisk for $11 billion upfront, and a fourth Catalent site in Somerset, NJ, to Ardena for an undisclosed price.
  • Announced plans in July for a $45 million expansion at its Madison, WI, facility. About 200 new jobs will be created at the facility, which provides development, manufacturing, and analytical services for new biological therapies—and houses the company’s GPEx® Lightning cell-line technology.
  • Launched a strategic collaboration with Galapagos in January that is designed to support decentralized manufacturing for clinical studies of GLPG5101, the Belgian drug developer’s CAR T therapy candidate for relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma indications.
  1. Samsung Biologics

Incheon, South Korea

KRW 4.547 trillion ($3.277 billion)

  • Finished Q2 with consolidated operating profit of KRW 475.6 billion ($343.4 million), up 9.5% year-over-year, on KRW 1.29 trillion ($931.3 billion) in revenue, up 11.5% from Q2 2024.
  • Disclosed on April 28 that it signed a KRW 737.3 billion ($532.4 million) biologics contract manufacturing contract with an unnamed “U.S.-based pharmaceutical company.”
  • Launched Samsung Organoids, a set of advanced drug screening services designed to support clients in drug discovery and development. The launch expands Samsung Biologics’ business to include preclinical research, with service offerings spanning target discovery, lead selection, preclinical development, and clinical trial planning.
  1. WuXi Biologics

Wuxi, China

RMB 18.675 billion ($2.59 billion)

  • Announced July 21 that five manufacturing facilities successfully passed the FDA’s Pre-License Inspection with no critical issues or data integrity findings—two drug substance facilities (MFG1 and MFG5) and three drug product facilities (DP1, DP2, and DP5) in Wuxi, China.
  • Started construction of a new microbial manufacturing site of 95,000 square meters (1.02 million square feet) for commercial production in the Wenjiang district of Chengdu, China. The site is scheduled to start GMP production by the end of 2026.
  • Began construction of a new modular bio-logics drug product facility of approximately 30,000 square meters (322,917 square feet) that will become part of the company’s contract research, development, and manufacturing (CRDMO) hub in Singapore.
  1. Siegfried

Zofingen, Switzerland

CHF 1.295 billion ($1.607 billion)

  • Appointed Peter Freisler as Chief Business Officer and Executive Committee member effective August 1. Peter joined from Evonik, where he held several senior leadership roles, most recently Global Vice President Sales and Services for the Health Care business line.
  • Began expanding its ophthalmic drug manufacturing site in El Masnou near Barcelona, Spain to increase its sterile eye drop manufacturing capacity, in response to growing customer demand. The new capacity will be available for customers beginning in 2027.
  • Disclosed that as of April 10, the amount of company sales subject to potential U.S. tariffs was less than CHF 10 million ($12.4 million).
  1. Fujifilm Biotechnologies

College Station, TX/Tokyo, Japan

¥219.5 billion ($1.496 billion)5

  • Rebranded in June from Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies to Fujifilm’s Life Sciences Group, which has also rebranded Fujifilm Irvine Scientific as Fujifilm Biosciences.
  • Carrying out a 138,000-square-foot expansion of its College Station, TX, facility focused on the manufacturing of gene therapies and vaccines.
  • Completing the first phase of a $3.2 billion end-to-end biomanufacturing facility in Holly Springs, NC. The workforce there is expected to grow from 500 to 700 by year’s end and to 1,400 by 2031.
  1. Boehringer Ingelheim

Ingelheim, Germany

€1.235 billion ($1.431 billion)6

  • Finished H1 2025 with group net sales that grew 6.3% over H1 2024, to €14 billion

    ($16 billion).

  • Carrying out a €300 million ($350 million) expansion of its Yamagata, Japan, facility that includes the opening of a new production unit, infrastructure improvements, and an additional facility for which ground was broken in June.
  • Expanding BioXcellence™ contract manufacturing services in China, with the company’s biopharmaceutical facility in Shanghai qualified to participate in a pilot regulatory reform promoting segmented manufacturing of biological products, led by China’s National Medical Products Administration.
  1. Recipharm

Stockholm, Sweden

€827 million ($958 million)

  • Reinforced its core focus on oral solid dosage, sterile fill & finish, and ReciBioPharm biologics and advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) division, after completing the spinout of its inhaled and nasal drug-device business into Bespak.
  • Secured major product development contracts, the company said, further solidifying its leadership in blow-fill-seal technology. One contract with an undisclosed “top five global ophthalmic organization” involves rapid production of clinical trial material for a Phase I study. Another agreement with an undisclosed “global ophthalmic biotech” will support a Phase II/III ophthalmic suspension program.
  • ReciBioPharm awarded a three-year grant of undisclosed amount from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate development of its xRNA continuous manufacturing platform, which has reduced RNA production timelines from 25 to five days, in order to improve access to xRNA vaccines and therapeutics in low- and middle-income countries.
  1. MilliporeSigma/Merck KGaA

Burlington, MA

€722 million ($836 million)7

  • Launched a five-year strategic alliance with Simtra BioPharma Solutions, a CDMO specializing in sterile injectables, to create a turnkey offering for biopharmas seeking ADC and bioconjugation, linker/payload manufacturing, drug product formulation development, and fill-finish capabilities.
  • Finished H1 2025 with €322 million ($375 million) in net sales for its Life Science Services unit, which includes CDMO and contract testing services—down 8% from €351 million (about $409 million) in H1 2024.
  • Launched the AAW™ Automated Assay Workstation, designed to automate routine laboratory experiments previously performed manually, reducing hands-on time and ensuring consistency in results across diverse experimental settings. AAW is powered by Opentrons, which focuses on lab automation and accessible robotics.

References

  1. 2024 results consist of sales from all operations, since CDMO business results had not been separated in Lonza’s financial results until 2025. CDMO operations exclude Capsules & Health Ingredients segment, which is not figured into CDMO results.
  2. CDMO operations accounted for 87% of Lonza’s total core EBITDA in H1 2025, which at CHF 1.059 billion ($1.311 billion) was up nearly 19% from CHF 893 million ($1.106 billion) in H1 2024, on revenue that jumped 17% year-over-year to CHF 3.576 billion ($4.427 billion) from CHF 3.057 billion ($3.785 billion).
  3. This Thermo Fisher figure was disclosed during the company’s most recent Investor Day, held September 19, 2024, in a presentation that stated “$7B Revenue” as being generated by the Pharma Services business of Thermo Fisher’s Laboratory Products and Biopharma Services segment. Through a spokesperson, Thermo Fisher confirmed the figure as its most accurate value of CDMO activity.
  4. This Catalent figure reflects net revenue for the four most recent quarters for which the CDMO published results—the second, third, and fourth quarters of FY 2024 (October 2023-June 2024) and the first quarter of FY 2025 (July-September 2024. Catalent has ceased reporting revenue figures following completion of its $16.5 billion acquisition by Novo Holdings in December 2024. Novo Holdings is the asset manager of the foundation that controls Novo Nordisk.
  5. This Fujifilm Biotechnologies figure is the sum of Q1–Q4 fiscal year 2024 quarterly revenue figures for the “Bio CDMO” business within the Healthcare segment of Fujifilm Holdings, whose subsidiaries include CDMO Fujifilm Biotechnologies—rebranded in June from Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies. Fujifilm operates on a fiscal year that runs from April 1 of the named FY to March 31. FY 2024 covers the 12 months starting April 1, 2024, and ending March 31, 2025.
  6. This Boehringer Ingelheim figure reflects revenue for the company’s BioXcellence™ division (biopharmaceutical contract production), furnished by the company within its annual reports.
  7. This MilliporeSigma figure reflects parent company Merck KGaA’s Life Science Services business unit, which includes CDMO and contract testing services.