“With facilities in the U.S. and Europe, customers can access packaging, labeling, QP release, manufacturing, laboratory, and storage services across a broader geographic network. That creates practical redundancy and optionality at a time when sponsors are increasingly focused on tariff exposure, cross-border logistics, market access complexity, and business continuity.”
— Timothy Compton, Chief Strategy Officer, Alcami
Timothy Compton is Chief Strategy Officer at Alcami, a U.S.-based contract development and manufacturing organization with over 45 years of experience serving pharmaceutical and biotech customers. He spoke with PharmaSource weeks after Alcami completed its acquisition of Tjoapack, the Netherlands-headquartered contract packaging organization, a deal that gives Alcami its first European manufacturing presence and a platform spanning more than 1 million square feet and 1,400 employees across the U.S. and Europe.
CDMO Consolidation
Pharmaceutical supply chains have rarely faced so many simultaneous pressures. Tariff uncertainty, cross-border trade complexity, and renewed focus on business continuity have pushed external manufacturing leaders to reassess how many geographies their critical packaging and labeling operations depend on, and how quickly they could absorb a disruption.
Against that backdrop, consolidation in the CDMO and contract packaging space has picked up pace. Alcami announced in April 2026 that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire Tjoapack, a contract packaging organization with over 35 years of experience in regulated pharmaceutical packaging. The deal closed in May, according to the company’s announcement. The combined organization now supports production of over 80 commercial products worldwide.
The strategic rationale went beyond adding capacity. Timothy explains that, by bringing in Tjoapack’s sites in Etten-Leur, the Netherlands, and Clinton, Tennessee, alongside 23 packaging lines and QP release services in Europe, Alcami’s acquisition addressed a capability gap that many mid-sized U.S.-based CDMOs share: the ability to serve sponsors looking to supply products in multiple markets without layering in multiple supplier handoffs.
Why Tjoapack, and Why Now
The Strategic Logic Behind the Deal
Alcami had existing packaging and labeling capabilities in Wilmington, North Carolina. So the immediate question is why Tjoapack in particular, rather than organic expansion.
Timothy explains that Tjoapack addressed several priorities at once. “Tjoapack provides Alcami with an immediate trans-Atlantic footprint,” he says, noting that the Netherlands site and the Clinton, Tennessee facility together expanded Alcami’s packaging scale, added commercial packaging depth, and created business continuity redundancy that a single-site packaging operation cannot offer.
Equally important, Timothy argues, was what Tjoapack brought that couldn’t be built from scratch quickly: more than three decades of regulated pharmaceutical packaging experience, an established customer base covering over 40 commercial markets globally, and QP release capabilities in Europe, a regulatory requirement for commercial market supply that takes considerable time and investment to establish independently.
The combination extends Alcami’s service portfolio without requiring sponsors to work with separate providers for manufacturing, testing, storage, and European packaging release. “The acquisition helps customers reduce reliance on a single geography or supplier handoff,” Timothy says, “and supports a more resilient pathway for supplying medicines globally.”
What the Integration Looks Like in Practice
Continuity First, Expansion Second
One of the more telling signals in Timothy’s responses is the sequencing he describes. The priority is maintaining service continuity over cross-selling.
“Tjoapack customers should expect services at existing sites to continue without interruption,” he says, “with current contracts, personnel, and primary contacts remaining in place unless otherwise communicated.”
Integrations in the CDMO sector carry well-documented risks: quality systems changes, shifts in account management, and disruption during system or process alignment can affect batch timelines and customer confidence. Timothy acknowledges the company is only in the early weeks of integration — “less than 60 days in” at the time of speaking — but says cross-site service opportunities are already available for customers who want them.
The practical offer for Tjoapack customers is access to Alcami’s pharmaceutical testing laboratories, sterile and oral solid dose drug product manufacturing, and cGMP pharma storage. For existing Alcami customers, the expansion means additional packaging scale, U.S.-Europe redundancy, and QP release services for European market access.
Supply Chain Resilience in a Tariff Environment
A Two-Site Answer to a Political Risk Question
The timing of this deal has a broader context. The trade environment in 2026 has made geographic concentration in pharmaceutical supply chains a concrete risk rather than a theoretical one. Tariff exposure, customs complexity, and market access requirements have moved up on the priority list for external manufacturing leaders and procurement teams alike.
Timothy addresses this. The combined footprint, he argues, gives customers “more flexibility in how they design, protect, and scale their supply chains.” The ability to access packaging, labeling, QP release, and manufacturing services across both the U.S. and European networks from a single supplier relationship is positioned as a practical response to sponsors who are increasingly worried about what happens if one geography becomes more expensive, more complicated, or less reliable.
The QP release capability in Europe deserves particular attention. For sponsors seeking to supply products in EU markets, QP release is a regulatory requirement. Historically, many U.S.-based CDMOs have required their customers to arrange QP release separately, which adds a supplier handoff, a communication layer, and additional timeline risk. Alcami’s acquisition of Tjoapack brings that capability in-house.
“Customers already have the opportunities for cross-site and cross-service support,” Timothy says of the current integration state. For sponsors with products already in European markets, or those planning for European launch, this could remove a step from a process that has historically been a friction point.
Who This Platform Is Built For
The Ideal Customer Profile
Not every sponsor has the same need for a transatlantic integrated CDMO platform. Timothy is relatively specific about the customers the combined organization is built to serve.
The clearest fit, he says, is small- to mid-sized pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. These are sponsors who “value fewer supplier handoffs, global packaging and labeling support, QP release services in Europe, and access to U.S.-based drug product manufacturing, analytical testing, and GMP storage.” In other words, companies at or approaching commercial stage who want to simplify their supply chain rather than expand it.
There is also a case for larger sponsors, Timothy notes, specifically those seeking additional packaging capacity, supply redundancy, or flexible U.S.-Europe market access support. This positions Alcami as a supplementary partner for companies whose primary CDMO relationships may already be in place but who are looking to add geographic optionality without onboarding a new provider for each capability.
Whether future European acquisitions are on the table is a question Timothy declines to foreclose, but characterizes as secondary to integration. “The immediate priority is successful integration of Alcami and Tjoapack,” he says, while noting that any future expansion would be evaluated against the same criteria: whether it strengthens customer service, expands differentiated capabilities, and improves supply chain resilience.
