- Shilpa CDMO is investing $50 million to expand peptide manufacturing at its Unit-I campus in Raichur, Karnataka, India. The phased investment adds 10 KL of solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) reactor capacity to its three existing clinical-phase manufacturing lines.
- A fourth line for commercial manufacturing is scheduled to open in December 2026, with commercial supply ramping up through 2027. The expanded operation will comprise six parallel cGMP lines supporting SPPS, liquid-phase, and hybrid synthesis routes.
Shilpa CDMO, the complex-chemistry contract development and manufacturing arm of Shilpa Medicare, announced on November 3, 2026, that it is investing $50 million to expand peptide manufacturing at its Unit-I campus in Raichur, Karnataka. The company cited accelerating demand for GLP-1s and a new generation of more complex peptide therapeutics. The investment will be phased over the next few years. It follows the October 2026 launch of Shilpa CDMO as a dedicated complex-molecule CDMO brand.
The first milestone is a fourth line, built for commercial manufacturing, which is scheduled to open in December 2026. It features 500 L and 1,000 L reactors in a single block and supports annual production of up to one metric tonne. Purification includes two 2-metre DAC columns and a 10,000 LPH preparative HPLC system. Commercial supply is expected to ramp up through 2027. The company also plans further 2 KL, 3 KL, and 5 KL SPPS reactors, which it said would establish one of the largest multi-ton peptide capacities in India.
The expanded peptide operation will comprise six parallel cGMP manufacturing lines, allowing multiple programs to run independently. The platform supports SPPS, liquid-phase peptide synthesis, and hybrid synthesis. Manufacturing routes can therefore be tailored to the molecule, its development stage, and its intended commercial scale. One line is dedicated to cytotoxic peptide manufacturing using SPPS, building on existing cytotoxic and peptide conjugate capabilities. The company said the investment would help overcome purification bottlenecks in peptide scale-up.
More than 100 scientists and manufacturing specialists already work in Shilpa’s peptide business. That includes a team of more than 50 dedicated to peptide chemistries and 45 chemists across production and purification, backed by the wider group’s 350-plus PhDs. The peptide unit operates within the 34-acre Raichur campus, which has dedicated R&D and cGMP manufacturing infrastructure for APIs, commercial linkers, HPAPIs spanning OEB 1-6, and peptide drug conjugates.
“Innovator pipelines in oncology and rare diseases are producing increasingly sophisticated molecules and conjugates that require much greater expertise in route design, synthesis, purification and scale-up.”
Keshav Bhutada, Chief Executive Officer, Shilpa CDMO
