Next-generation therapies: rewriting the capabilities list of CRDMO
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During CPHIChina2026, Pharmaron Tech announced its strategic positioning as the "Green Intelligent Chemical Engine for Next-Generation Therapies".
In the current context of the CDMO industry, Pharmaron Tech aims to integrate molecular building blocks, AI molecular design, green process scale-up, DS/DP synergy, and global delivery capabilities into a CRDMO platform for complex molecules.
Next-generation therapies such as ADCs, PROTACs, peptides, oligonucleotides, and AOCs are continuously gaining momentum, and the challenges of innovative drug projects are shifting from target discovery toward molecular engineering, CMC development, quality systems, and commercial supply. For innovative drug companies, the value of external partners depends on whether they can identify molecular risks at an earlier stage and carry this judgment through subsequent development and production.
Goldman Sachs recently summarized the current CDMO industry as "recovery continues but differentiation is significant." GLP-1/TIDES demand is still driving order growth; ADC pipelines are active, but commercialization visibility varies. For Pharmaron Tech, this means how a company can leverage its traditional small molecule chemistry strengths to enter the development and manufacturing of more complex molecular forms.
From Molecular Building Blocks to Developable Molecules
Pharmaron Tech's earliest core asset is molecular building blocks. In the past, this capability mainly served the drug discovery stage, offering clients diverse chemical fragments and synthesis starting points. In the context of next-generation therapies, the value of building blocks needs to shift forward to molecular design, and extend to synthesizability, scalability, and developability.
At the launch event, Pharmaron Tech introduced its self-developed end-to-end AI drug discovery platform ZoeStarTM. This platform builds a virtual chemical space based on more than 200,000 molecular building blocks and recommends candidate molecules within the constraints of physical blocks and synthesizability. Its practical significance is that AI-generated structures, if disconnected from synthetic routes, impurity control, and process scale-up, can easily see early efficiency lost at the CMC stage.
UBS suggested in a recent report on AI’s impact on China’s CDMO industry that AIDD will drive more complex molecules into the validation phase. AI-generated molecules have higher average molecular weight, more chiral centers, higher synthetic accessibility scores, and the proportion of molecules requiring more than five synthetic steps is rising. UBS believes that CDMOs capable of converting AI-designed molecules into real, testable candidates will benefit in both quantity and price.
This is exactly why Pharmaron Tech emphasizes "AI + molecular building blocks": AI expands the search space, while building blocks turn search results into executable chemical outcomes. The ultimate conversion to orders depends on experimental validation efficiency in client projects and subsequent development transformation.
The Challenge of Industrializing Complex Molecules Lies in Scale-Up
The barrier for next-generation therapies often arises after proof of concept.
ADC requires stable linkers and conjugation control; PROTAC deals with higher molecular weights and more complex conformations; peptides involve non-natural amino acids and synthesis efficiency; oligonucleotides demand stricter impurity profiles, purification, and quality systems.
All these issues ultimately fall to CMC.
This time, Pharmaron Tech showcased its manufacturing capabilities in continuous flow, fixed-bed, enzymatic catalysis, digital development and production, and green operations. The company disclosed that its continuous flow and fixed-bed platforms have accumulated nearly a thousand practical projects, with some reaching ton-scale. For example, its 10-liter fixed-bed hydrogenation facility delivers output equivalent to traditional large-volume batch reactors, while reducing on-line material hold.
The value of these capabilities is mainly seen in scaling up complex reactions. Continuous flow enables precise heat and mass transfer, residence time control, online monitoring, and engineering modeling, improving safety, stability, and quality consistency during high-risk scale-up. For a next-generation therapy CRDMO platform, green manufacturing connects ESG, cost control, and scalability.
Peptide drugs provide an external reference. Goldman Sachs anticipates that from 2025–2036, the global peptide CDMO market will grow at a compound rate of about 19%, with global anti-obesity drugs requiring around 79,000 kg of peptide APIs by 2030. As demand for peptide APIs grows, GMP compliance, manufacturing cost, and capacity execution will become the true constraints of the industry chain.
Integrated CRDMO Tests Knowledge Transfer
Pharmaron Tech repeatedly emphasized integrated CRDMO at the event. This concept must not be understood as merely physically combining API and formulation capabilities, but more crucially as whether process, analytical, quality, and project management knowledge can be continuously transferred.
A project from PCC to IND, then IND to NDA and commercial supply, route, impurities, analytical methods, quality standards, and filing documentation are all iterated continuously. If there are repeated handovers at each stage, tech transfers and later rework can eat into early-stage development efficiency.
At the event, Dr. Yu Shanbao, VP of Pharmaron Tech, mentioned that DS/DP synergy helps reduce duplicate tech transfers and late-stage rework, while improving data integrity and quality consistency.
Dr. Gong Yuchuan, CMC lead for small molecules at BeiGene, also shared their cooperation experience at the event. BeiGene's collaboration with Pharmaron Tech extends from drug discovery to CMC development and commercial supply, covering molecular building blocks, key starting materials, continuous flow processes, continuous hydrogenation, as well as mechanism-driven and data-driven R&D.
This case illustrates that platform capabilities need to be validated through long-term project relationships; a single technology label cannot replace continuous delivery in client projects.
The visibility of the CDMO sector is increasingly driven by late-stage and commercial projects, while the weight of early-stage financing environment is declining. This judgment applies to all CRDMO companies. No matter how complete the platform sounds, ultimately it comes down to quality, share of commercial projects, and order conversion.
Global Delivery Capability Determines Customer Radius
Pharmaron Tech also emphasized globalization and sustainability in this strategic announcement. The company stated that it has established Nanjing as its global R&D center, Zurich (Switzerland) as its European R&D support and warehousing hub, West Chester and Hatfield (Pennsylvania, USA) to serve North American clients, and production bases in Zhejiang and Shandong for clinical to commercial manufacturing; by 2025, its overseas market revenue share will exceed 72%.
As drug molecules become more complex, rare industry capabilities also become more specific: transforming complex molecules into developable, scalable, registrable, and sustainably supplied products. For CRDMO enterprises, this is the main battleground for the next stage of competition.
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