CordenPharma has announced an €80m multi-year investment in a new facility and additional aseptic fill & finish lines at its Caponago (Milan) site in Italy to boost the site's manufacturing capacity.
The expansion includes a €13m acquisition of a new 11,000 m2 commercial building and 26,000 m2 of land, located next to the existing late-stage aseptic fill & finish manufacturing area — expanding the site's footprint by more than half.
CordenPharma is positioning the site as a fit-for-purpose aseptic fill & finish CDMO outsourcing partner for peptide, LNP, small molecule, biologic and oligonucleotide-based injectable therapeutics.
The equipment can be tailored to specific production setups and requirements, plus, the site can now support additional manufacturing lines for a wide range of injectable formats, including Pre-Filled Syringes (PFS), liquid or lyophilised vials, cartridges and auto-injectors.
Injectable solutions integrated with LNP manufacturing capabilities will be available on the same campus at CordenPharma Caponago.
The expanded space will be able to accommodate at least four aseptic fill & finish lines, four visual inspection lines and four additional packaging lines, with CordenPharma saying there will also be options for customer-owned lines, large-scale lyophilisation and auto-injector assembly.
This expansion follows a series of similar developments in the existing operational area at its Caponago site, including two new aseptic fill & finish isolator lines that are scheduled for completion in mid-2027 and 2028.
These, plus other additions, include the following:
- A clinical and small-scale commercial combo line from Bausch & Ströbel for Pre-Filled Syringes (PFS), vials and cartridges
- A high-speed PFS & cartridge line from Syntegon, capable of producing >500,000 units per day
- Expansion of the automatic secondary packaging area for PFS, vials and ampoules
- A doubling of analytical capacity to support growing project pipelines.
Corden Pharma said it expected the site's total capacity to reach up to 500 million injectable units per year once fully operational.
It cited rising global demand for sterile injectable outsourcing across therapeutic areas such as oncology, obesity, diabetes and inflammatory diseases with complex modalities such as peptide-based GLP-1 therapeutics, oligonucleotides, LNPs, biosimilars and other biologics.
Dr Michael Quirmbach, President & CEO of CordenPharma Group, said: "The support of our shareholders, Astorg, underscores our commitment to advancing sterile injectable manufacturing at CordenPharma Caponago."
This strategic investment strengthens our leadership in the manufacture of drug products using complex modalities and enhances our end-to-end supply capabilities to meet rising global demand for injectable outsourcing, ultimately enabling partners to bring vital drug products in key therapeutic areas to patients more efficiently.
Since its acquisition by Astorg in 2022, CordenPharma has invested heavily in order to expand its global Peptides Platform and manufacturing capabilities.
The company purchased AbioPharm, a US-based peptide API CDMO, back in May, adding complementary peptide API capabilities in both the US and China.
Its Peptides Platform now spans three continents, offering customers end-to-end peptide development and manufacturing support.
