WuXi Bio grabs larger piece of the bio CDMO pie

With over 10% of the biologics outsourcing market share, WuXi Biologics is now the second largest CDMO according to an analyst. 

The China-based contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) reported its end of year results for 2021. Revenues increased by 83.3% year-on-year to $1.6 billion and net profits grew by 107%, totaling $550 million.

Furthermore, according to Chris Liu, an equity analyst at Jefferies, Wuxi is now the second largest player in the global biologics outsourcing market with 10.3% shares of it’s the sector’s total revenue in 2021 (compared to 6.4% in 2020).

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“Global big pharmas contribute approximately 40% of sales in 2021 vs. Approximately 20% in 2020,” he wrote in a note. “All top 20 global big pharma are now working with Wuxi Bio. Approximately 95% projects were retained after big pharma’s acquisition of small/medium biotechs.”

The firm has been involved in a string of facility expansions and acquisitions over the past few years. In March 2021, the firm bought over 90% of fellow Chinese CDMO CMAB Biopharma for an undisclosed fee. The acquisition added a biologics manufacturing plant in Suzhou, setting WuXi up to have 430,000 L of bioreactor capacity from 2024.

In the same month, WuXi added both drug substance and drug product manufacturing capacity to its ever-growing footprint through the acquisition of a single-use biologics production plant in Hangzhou, China from Pfizer.

The CDMO then invested $300 million in August 2021 at its site in Worcester, Massachusetts to up its bioreactor capacity from 6,000 L to 24,000 L to support demand for biomanufacturing onshoring.

CDMO rivals

If WuXi is the second largest player by revenue, Swiss CDMO Lonza is far out in the field with its biologics sector pulling in $2.9 billion for 2021.

Additionally, other large CDMO’s reported robust results, including Samsung Biologics, which is building a network and prepping to construct its fifth biomanufacturing plant in Korea. The firm bagged $1.28 billion in total biologics sales in 2021.

New Jersey headquartered CDMO Catalent also reported a strong 2021 revenue of $1.93 billion within its biologics segment. However, this division also includes cell and gene therapy services and technologies on top of mammalian cell culture sales.