Global Healthcare CMO Market (by Type, & Region): Insights and Forecast with Potential Impact of COVID-19 (2022-2027)

Healthcare CMOs, or healthcare contract manufacturing organizations, are businesses that provide complete services such as medication research and manufacture under a legal contract for a particular period of time.

A Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO) in the healthcare business provides services to pharmaceutical firms, hospitals, and others. Among the services offered are pre-formulation, formulation development, stability studies, method development, pre-clinical and Phase I clinical trial materials, and late-stage clinical trial materials. The global healthcare CMO market is expected to be worth US$145.70 billion in 2023, witnessing growth at a CAGR of 12.12%, during the forecasted period.

Segment Covered

By Type: On the basis of type, the report provides the bifurcation of the healthcare CMO market into two segments: Pharmaceutical and Medical Device. Pharmaceutical CMO segment is further divided into two segment on the basis of service: Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) and Others. The device manufacturing segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate in the market during the forecast period, owing to increasing outsourcing of device manufacturing due to a lack of in-house manufacturing facilities and complexity. CMOs have quality management systems, assembly, integration and testing capabilities besides supply chain management, experienced manufacturers have systems in place to quickly partner with health care organizations during the forecasted period.

Geographic Coverage

According to this report, the global healthcare CMO market is divided into four regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and ROW. The countries covered in North America region are the US, Canada, and Mexico, while Europe includes Germany, The UK, France, Italy, Spain and Rest of the Europe. Moreover, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Rest of the Asia Pacific are included in the Asia Pacific region. North America accounted for the maximum share of the global market. The market in North America is being driven by the region’s increased emphasis on drug discovery and manufacturing outsourcing. The region is increasing its use of scientific exploration of disease mechanisms leading to the discovery and development of agents. Asia Pacific is predicted to grow at a significantly high rate during the forecasted period. The governments in various countries in this region are placing large contracts with local CMOs to speed up the production of life supporting devices like ventilators to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical devices like ventilator therefore become more important for providing life support to patients. Therefore, collaboration of authorities with CMOs would lead to increase in production of ventilators, this would bolster the growth of the market during the forecasted years.

Top Impacting Factors

Growth Drivers

• Surging Geriatric Population
• Increasing Spread of Chronic Diseases
• Escalating Demand for Generic Drugs
• Increasing Demand for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API)

Challenges

• Rapid Technological Advancements
• Dependent on Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks and Trade Secrets

Trends

• Escalating Role of Artificial Intelligence Technology
• Evolution of Advanced Respiratory Equipment

Driver: Increasing Demand for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API)

Over the last few years, the demand for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturing has been steadily increasing. It is expected to rise steadily in the future, with additional patent expirations and a significant increase in global generic production capacities. Increasing government initiatives in the healthcare sector, biologics innovation, and an increase in the incidence of cancer and age-related diseases are some of the major factors driving the growth of the API manufacturing. The majority of the industry's companies are increasingly focusing on the development of biological APIs, which is propelling the API manufacturing. The growing emphasis on high-potency APIs is increasing the demand for API manufacturing. Novel HPAPI technologies have the potential to change the in-out balance of CMOs in this rapidly growing segment. As large pharmaceutical companies continue to reduce manufacturing, better opportunities for CMOs in the biopharmaceutical and small molecule API sectors are expected, driving the market growth.

Challenge: Rapid Technological Advancements

The healthcare industry is characterized by rapid technological change. Demand for company’s offerings may change in ways the company may not anticipate because of evolving industry standards as well as a result of evolving customer needs that are increasingly sophisticated and varied and the introduction by others of new offerings and technologies that provide alternatives to the offerings. Several of the higher margin offerings are based on proprietary technologies. To the extent that such technologies are protected by patents, their related offerings may become subject to competition as the patents expire. Without the timely introduction of enhanced or new offerings and technologies, the offerings may become obsolete or uncompetitive over time, this may impact the operation of the company and correspondingly obstructs market growth.

Trend: Escalating Role of Artificial Intelligence Technology

Healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed by assisting in repetitive tasks, designing treatment plans, medication management, and drug discovery. It can also be effectively used for healthcare data management by collecting, storing, and normalizing the data. Contract manufacturers are incorporating AI and other technological innovations to become more cost-effective and speed up production time. In addition pharmaceutical CMOs are constantly developing AI technology in order to facilitate better risk detection and, in turn, improve the quality and safety of pharmaceutical products. The growth of the AI industry would correspondingly bolster the growth of the global healthcare CMO market.

The COVID-19 Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health concern around the world. However, the market experienced a positive demand shock, attributable to the increasing number of biopharmaceutical services provided to CMOs. CMOs have been investing in and acquiring facilities in order to be ready for high-volume production units. This pandemic has proven to be an era of exponential growth in facility and bioprocessing units to have a higher output for increased and continuous supply. Vaccine development and manufacturing activity in the healthcare CMO market has increased in the last year, owing primarily to the industry's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This expansion is expected to continue in the coming years as well. CMOs have made capacity and resource investments to address supply chain challenges. The CMO industry has seen an increase in modular construction and expansion, investments in cutting-edge technology, and process intensification strategies. Furthermore, many CMOs are expanding their capabilities in new modalities such as [messenger RNA] mRNA and cell and gene therapy, which would drive the growth of the market during the post COVID period.

Analysis of Key Players

Global healthcare CMO market is moderately consolidated. Strategic collaborations are another common strategy used to gain a competitive advantage. The key players in the global healthcare CMO market are Samsung Biologics Co. Ltd., Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Koninklijke DSM N.V. (Royal DSM), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Catalent Pharma Solutions, Inc., Integer Holdings Corporation, Piramal Enterprises Limited, Lonza Group AG, Aurobindo Pharma Limited, Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services, Fareva Group, and Recipharm AB.