Corden Pharma's €900M Investment to Tackle Diabetic Drug Shortages

Amid ongoing global shortages of diabetic drugs, German contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Corden Pharma announced an investment of €900 million ($980 million) to enhance its manufacturing capacity.The business announced that it would utilise the investment to increase the capacity of its peptide manufacturing facilities in Colorado, the US, and Europe over the following three years. As demand rises, the facilities will place a special emphasis on the production of GLP-1 peptides. The corporation mentioned many long-term contracts worth over €3 billion in potential benefits in a news release dated July 16.According to a Reuters story, the company inked a significant agreement with Eli Lilly last year to produce the active pharmaceutical ingredient (tirzepatide) for its top obesity medication Mounjaro. 

The business also reported the signing of a $1 billion, multi-year contract with an unidentified company to produce a substantial number of peptides in January 2023.The purpose of the most recent investment is to build a greenfield site for large-scale peptide production. These initiatives, along with earlier this year's expansions, are meant to assist Corden in reaching its $1 billion sales goal by 2028. To accommodate the rising demand for GLP-1 receptor agonists, other businesses including Novo Nordisk and Aurisco Pharmaceutical have also made significant investments in their peptide manufacturing facilities.

GLP-1 receptor agonist treatments have dominated the diabetes and weight reduction industries throughout time, bringing substantial financial success to a number of businesses. The type 2 diabetes treatment Ozempic (semaglutide) from Novo Nordisk brought in around $14 billion in sales globally in the previous year, while Mounjaro (tirzepatide) from Eli Lilly brought in $5.16 billion in sales worldwide in 2023. According to GlobalData's consensus estimates, the medicines' global sales might reach $22.43 billion and $27.42 billion, respectively, in 2030.