30 Years of Transforming the CDMO Industry – A Chemist’s Perspective

Being part of today’s Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) industry feels significantly different to two decades ago, when I began my professional career as a chemist. Back then, CDMOs were referred to as Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs), and the concept of contract manufacturing as a business model was just starting to take shape. At that time, the tasks of chemists were often relatively rigidly defined and primarily limited to the implementation of existing processes – innovative impulses were less in demand.

Since the 1990s, as pharmaceutical companies sought to consolidate and focus on their core value-generating competencies, a lot has changed. While the CDMO sector has evolved into a substantial industry in its own right, the profile of its scientists and their competencies has also transformed. Today, there are more than a thousand companies worldwide offering highly differentiated services to global pharmaceutical firms, generating more than US$180 billion revenue and employing tens of thousands of scientists (1).