CordenPharma is advancing a more than EUR 1-billion ($1.1-billion) strategic investment in peptide development and manufacturing. Michael Quirmbach, PhD, CEO & President of CordenPharma, outlined the company’s expansion plans at the DCAT Member Company Announcement Forum at DCAT Week.  

The company’s expansion plans include an additional 30,000 L of solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) capacity and 26,000 square meters of production area. Backed by several multi-year customer contracts with a total sales volume of more than EUR 4 billion ($4.4 billion), the record investment by the company is set to propel its Peptide Platform business beyond the EUR 1-billion ($1.1-billion) sales milestone by 2028.  

In Switzerland, CordenPharma announced plans to establish a greenfield peptide manufacturing facility outside Basel located in Muttenz at Getec Park. With small- to large-scale SPPS reactor capacity for glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and non-GLP-1 peptide projects totaling more than 5,000 L. The main construction phase will take place between 2025 and 2027, with site qualification to be completed before the end of 2027, and commercial activities beginning the first half of 2028. 

CordenPharma’s decision to locate the plant at an industrial park near Basel is supported by several key factors, including optimal logistics proximity to transportation networks, large-scale utilities already in place to support chemical manufacturing, access to the talent pool within the Basel region, and sustainable operational efficiency with closed-loop energy and material cycles, waste-to-value streams, and a path to net-zero emissions. 

In its CordenPharma Colorado (US) site, the company will invest more than $500 million in additional large-scale Peptide active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing capacity, which includes revamping existing buildings and a greenfield construction for new production areas, with a total usable area exceeding 6,000 square meters. The expansion more than doubles existing SPPS reactor capacity by adding an additional 25,000 L of SPPS capacity, making it a total reactor capacity of more than 42,000 L by 2028. The main construction phase, which, started at the end of 2024, is anticipated for completion by end of 2027, with qualifications of the new production areas and start of commercial activities targeted between the second half 2026 and the first half 2028. 

The expansions will bolster the company’s existing peptide capabilities, including its Frankfurt, Germany, facility, which received GMP certification in January 2025 for early- to mid-stage clinical peptide manufacturing. This full integration across its facility network enables accelerated peptide-based therapeutic development for both GLP-1 and non-GLP-1 peptide projects, including forward integration with lipid nanoparticle (LNP) GMP manufacturing, oral solid dosage peptide development, and broad sterile injectable development and manufacturing capabilities.