“We invest to meet the needs of the customer. What’s driving these investments are really the customer partnerships that we’re building to make these happen,” explains Arul Ramadurai, Chief Commercial Officer at Axplora.
Axplora, a global leader in API small molecule and ADC manufacturing, was formed through the merger of Farmabios, Novasep, and PharmaZell. With 2,400 employees across ten API manufacturing sites in Europe, India and the US, the company has recently accelerated its growth strategy with major investments in high-growth areas like GLP-1 peptides and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
In a strategic leadership move to drive this expansion, the company appointed Martin Meeson as its new Chief Executive Officer in April 2024, succeeding Sylke Hassel.
In the latest episode of the PharmaSource podcast we interview Arul Ramadurai about the company strategy.
Strategic Focus on High-Growth Therapeutic Areas
Axplora has positioned itself in two of the fastest-growing therapeutic areas: GLP-1 peptides and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
The company recently announced a €50 million investment in its Mourenx site in Southwest France for GLP-1 manufacturing capabilities. This landmark investment enhances the site’s position as a center of excellence for contract manufacturing of APIs and drug substances for FDA-approved biologics. As Arul noted in February 2025, “GLP-1 therapies represent a paradigm shift in medicine, offering targeted therapies for complex diseases with unprecedented efficacy and tolerability.”
The GLP-1 market, projected to exceed $100 billion by 2030, presents a strategic opportunity that aligns perfectly with Axplora’s technical strengths. “GLP-1s come in different shapes and sizes. We have GLP-1 molecules that are peptides, often requiring large amounts of capacity for APIs, but also large amounts of purification capacity,” Arul explains. “That’s where we play quite well because of our history in chromatography—we probably have more chromatography systems than any other player in the world.”
For small molecule GLP-1s, Axplora leverages its industrial chemistry expertise: “Quite often they are complex molecules. There’s a lot of chemistry involved. We have three sites that have large workshops, and we’re able to provide the necessary R&D, project management, industrialization capabilities and capacities to meet that demand.”
In the ADC space, Axplora’s dominance is clear: they currently supply 40% of the world’s marketed ADCs and 50% of FDA-approved ADCs, making them a global leader. “We started in the space more than 20 years ago. Of the 12 molecules that are FDA approved commercial molecules, we supply six of them,” notes Arul. The company recently announced a new cutting-edge payload manufacturing workshop at their Le Mans site to further strengthen this position.
Customer-Driven Investment Philosophy
Axplora’s expansion strategy is distinctly customer-led rather than speculative. “Axplora has quite a simple investment philosophy, which is we invest to meet the needs of the customer,” explains Arul.
“We are working closely with customers in different parts of the world. In all three geographies, whether that’s North America, Europe or Asia, we’re working with customers to really come up with solutions for capacity needs in the coming years.”
This approach has led to multiple strategic investments across Europe: “We’ve announced expansions in our site in Mourenx in the southwest of France, but also we’ve added a new workshop for ADCs close to Paris in Le Mans, and we continue to invest in our site in Germany as well in Leverkusen.”
By securing customer commitments before major capital expenditures, Axplora maintains a financially disciplined growth strategy while still expanding in high-demand areas. This differs from competitors who build capacity first and then seek customers, minimizing risk while ensuring investments directly address market needs.
Technical Expertise as a Competitive Advantage
Axplora’s technical edge in both GLP-1 and ADC manufacturing stems from its heritage. “Purification and chromatography is the origin of the Novasep business, and that helps Axplora position ourselves as a leader in this space. There’s a degree of experience in chromatography that very few CDMOs have.”
When asked about the most significant manufacturing bottlenecks facing the industry, Arul highlights expertise rather than physical capacity: “What probably is most important in this space is to acknowledge and recognize that expertise plays a large role. And probably the biggest bottleneck that’s out there is actually in expertise—having the necessary skills and experience to really bring these molecules to market.”
This focus drives Axplora’s talent strategy: “We’re involved very much in the local communities. So that means, right from the schools through universities and beyond, we have various activities that we constantly do, to engage and to show people and to get people excited about what we do.”
Such community connections proved valuable during rapid expansion: “During COVID times, we were manufacturing Paxlovid, the COVID antiviral. And for that, we needed to recruit the right type of people, and we could do that in a very short space of time.”
Differentiating Through Reliability, Speed, and Simplicity
Beyond technical expertise, Axplora differentiates itself through three core principles: supply reliability, speed, and making collaboration easier.
“What’s very important in this space—if you think about where our end product goes at the end of the day, it goes to patients—which means that we need to always demonstrate the highest levels of quality and integrity in everything that we do,” says Arul. “When we talk about supply reliability, what that means for us is we just cannot afford to get it wrong.”
Speed is equally critical: “We need to make sure that we’re able to meet the timelines for all these new molecules that are coming onto market.”
The third differentiator focuses on removing friction: “We want to also be easy to do business with. How can we make the entire process of onboarding us easier? How can we make sure that we can bring you as a customer value sooner?”
This translates into practical benefits: “We’ve had experiences in the past where we’ve had something transferred to us, and within six months, we’ve been able to deliver commercial quantities. We’ve signed master agreements in a matter of weeks with larger companies.”
Axplora has developed specific systems to streamline tech transfers and accelerate timelines, including dedicated project management teams, standardized documentation templates, and rapid response protocols that significantly compress traditional timelines.
“If you think about a big pharma company, there might be a level of complexity there, and we don’t need to add to that,” Arul emphasizes. “We need to try and subtract from that. We need to make it easier for them to work with us.”
Future Industry Outlook: Specialization and Consolidation
Looking ahead, Arul predicts significant changes in the CDMO landscape, with increased specialization and geographical shifts being predominant trends.
“There’s definitely this push towards greater specialisation. We talked about GLP-1s, ADCs—there’ll be other technologies. We hear a lot about radiotherapies at the moment.”
Geographical considerations will play a more important role: “Very likely there’s going to be some geographical changes in terms of the location of where drug substances and drug products are manufactured. That presents an opportunity, especially for someone like us in a European setting.”
Finally, Arul expects further industry consolidation: “In three years’ time, what I would say is likely to be further consolidation of CDMOs. Those CDMOs that are invested in the so-called right areas are going to thrive, and I think the others will probably have to find a space which is probably a lot narrower.”
For pharmaceutical and biotech companies navigating this evolving landscape, Arul’s advice remains focused on fundamentals: “Always keep in mind supply reliability, speed and efficiency. This is what’s important. This is how we win for our customers. This is how we win for our patients.”
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