Approximately 69% of contract manufacturing organization (CMO) high-containment facilities in Europe can be found in the five major European markets (5EU*) and Switzerland, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s latest research reveals that the European contract manufacturing industry has invested heavily in containment capabilities.

Adam Bradbury, PharmSource Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “As is to be expected, the 5EU, as well as Switzerland, house the most small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facilities with containment in Europe. Most of these belong to dedicated CMOs, which only perform contract manufacturing rather than also marketing their own products.”

The handling of drug substances classed as highly potent or cytotoxic is increasingly commonplace for drug manufacturers due to the continuing growth of the oncology drug pipeline. Manufacturing these drugs is complex, requiring special equipment, facility layout and expertise.

Bradbury continues: “The manufacture of chemical APIs has become lucrative due to its growing complexity, using materials that are poorly soluble or require containment, which makes their handling more difficult.”

Around 60% of highly potent APIs (HPAPIs) in the pipeline are being trialed for oncology, making this therapy area a strong indicator of pipeline HPAPI activity. This is also a good predictor of future commercial-scale manufacturing demand for containment substances.

Bradbury concludes: “Approximately half of oncology drug candidates in Phase III and pre-registration are small molecules. This highlights that small molecule cytotoxic oncology will play a major role in upcoming approvals, and is good news for small molecule CMOs as small molecule drugs tend to be outsourced more than biologics.”

*5EU: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK