How A Leading Biopharma Manufacturer Is Re-Inventing Its CDMO Business

By Trevor Calkins, VP of R&D and Matt Tower, Director of Business Development

After establishing itself as a leading manufacturer of high purity biopharma components (i.e. supplying product to 6 of the top 10 billion dollar blockbuster biopharma drugs) and valued partner for custom API / HPAPI synthesis for over 80 years, Pfanstiehl became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ferro Corporation in 2001. Ferro, an international producer of performance industrial materials including coatings, fine chemicals, and polymer additives had hoped to use the acquisition as its entry into the pharma space and had intended to expand the technical and capital infrastructure of the new subsidiary. The early days of Pfanstiehl’s CDMO business under Ferro held promise, as millions of investment dollars were spent to upgrade analytical labs and HPAPI containment capabilities, resulting in Pfanstiehl becoming the first contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) in the world to attain the coveted SafeBridge certification. However, for a variety of reasons, the expansion efforts stalled and Ferro lost interest in making the necessary investments to keep pace with the ever-evolving pharma industry. By 2012, Pfanstiehl’s CDMO business had become just a shadow of its former self from years of neglect, and was being ignored or forgotten by the API outsourcing community. Thankfully, that time period is now just a chapter in Pfanstiehl’s rich history.