Weight-loss drugs are providing a boom for syringe-filling companies


  • Self-injection increases demand for weight loss drugs
  • Analysts say obesity market could be worth $100 billion within a decade
  • Contract drug manufacturers race to increase capacity to fill syringes

LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Contract drugmakers looking to enter the fast-growing market of weight-loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) are expanding factories that fill injection pens used to administer treatments. Billions of dollars are being invested to do or build. Vegovy.

Interviews with a dozen company executives, analysts and investors revealed that pharmaceutical services companies are struggling to secure the more specialist work of filling syringes used in pens, a process known as fill-finish. Known in.

“Every contract manufacturer that has sterile fill-finish capability is looking to add more going forward, because it’s not just about Wegovi anymore,” said Tejas Sawant, senior healthcare equity analyst at Morgan Stanley. “You also have Lily’s Monjaro and others coming.”

Sales of Wegovi, the first of a new generation of obesity treatments that mimic the body’s appetite-suppressing hormones, have soared since its launch in the United States in June 2021.

Eli Lilly’s (LLY.N) Monzaro is expected to be approved for weight loss in the United States this year.

The weekly weight-loss injections belong to a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists that analysts estimate could be worth as much as $100 billion within a decade, including drugs now being developed by Pfizer (PFE.N) and others. Ongoing oral treatments are also included.

Chris Chen, CEO of Wuxi Biologics (2269.HK), told Reuters his company is talking to customers about using pre-filled syringe capacity it is installing at a German factory it bought in 2020.

Describing the interest as “quite high”, he said he wanted to buy more factories in Europe to serve GLP-1 customers, but did not give details.

Catalent is building “significant” pre-filled syringe capacity at factories in Anagni, Italy, and Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States, said Cornell Stamoran, its vice president of corporate strategy and government affairs. They will come online in 2024.

American company Wegovi already does fill-finish work.

The business race among contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) started last year. Since then, about a half-dozen projects worth at least $3 billion have been announced by companies including Lonza (LONN.S), Fujifilm Corp subsidiary Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies and Germany’s Vetter.

And as Lilly prepares to launch Monjaro and Novo, which are struggling to meet demand, while it introduces Wegovi to more markets, the pace is accelerating.

CEO Mark Casper told a Morgan Stanley health conference last month that another Novo partner, Thermo Fisher (TMO.N), is using handling pens for obesity and diabetes drugs to fill COVID-19 vaccine syringes. The features being changed are being changed.

He said that there is a huge shortage of capacity. A company spokesperson declined to comment.

All companies interviewed by Reuters declined to disclose the terms of potential contracts or customers.

From Covid to obesity

Large drug manufacturers appoint CDMOs when they lack in-house expertise or scale. The syringes are filled under sterile conditions to avoid contamination before the pens are assembled and packaged, and then shipped by wholesalers to pharmacies and clinics.

Novo is spending billions to boost its own Wegovi output and plans to add more contract manufacturing sites in addition to the three operated by Catalent and Thermo.

Nevertheless, the shortage will persist into next year.

Lilly is also adding internal capacity, but for now is using a “broader portfolio” of CDMOs, a spokeswoman said, without naming them. Its drug Monjaro showed greater efficacy than Vegovi in ​​trials.

Research firm The Insight Partners estimates the fill-finish market will more than double to $12.5 billion between 2019 and 2027. An industry expert said this is almost twice as much as tablets or capsules.

Executives said new GLP-1 business could offset losses on COVID-19 vaccine contracts.

The US Inflation Reduction Act is also promoting the development of biologic drugs, some of which are given in injectable form. Injections are increasingly being used in elder care centers, and some new Alzheimer’s and common arthritis medications are given by injection.

But companies said GLP-1 is the main reason for investment.

Many projects will be completed next year or in some cases into 2026, meaning supply constraints are likely to persist. One health care investor said the CDMO’s ability to ramp up capacity will determine how fast the obesity drug market grows.

Meanwhile, Barclays analyst Luke Surgot said Catalent and Thermo are market leaders “in the catbird seat” because of their existing capabilities.

According to LSEG data, Catalent shares are currently trading at about 42 times estimated earnings over the next 12 months – more than 28 times for Lonza and 21 for Thermo, which is leading the way in the obesity race despite some quality issues. Shows current dominance. Reuters reported in July that quality defects at Catalent’s Brussels factory had led to a Wegovi shortage.

Executives said the struggle for capacity will not create a surplus.

“Based on my 30 years in the industry, CDMOs don’t follow the ‘build it and they will come’ model. That’s not how you build a CDMO business,” said Catalent’s Stamoran.

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Reporting by Maggie Fick; Additional reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York; Editing by Josephine Mason and Katherine Evans

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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