“We’ve combined these two solid legacies into a new, agile CDMO with a unique focus on high-value small and medium-scale production,” says Bruce Vielle, CEO of the newly formed Meribel Pharma Solutions.
Bruce Vielle, an experienced industrial business leader with extensive expertise in lean manufacturing and managing multi-site operations across automotive, aerospace, and pharmaceutical sectors, is spearheading the launch of Meribel Pharma Solutions. Most recently serving as President and CEO of Synerlab, Bruce now leads this ambitious new contract manufacturing venture backed by Blue Wolf Capital Partners.
Ahead of CDMO Live next month, Bruce shares insights about this significant new entrant to the European pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, formed through Blue Wolf Capital Partners’ strategic acquisition of Recipharm sites and Synerlab. The new venture brings together 13 sites across Sweden, France, and Spain with specialised capabilities in development, sterile multi-dose products, and lyophilisation.
Strategic Integration Creates Powerful New CDMO
Meribel Pharma Solutions represents the culmination of a carefully orchestrated merger between Recipharm’s carved-out sites and Synerlab, completed at the end of 2024. Bruce explains that the integration brings together complementary capabilities that create significant market synergies.
“Our first challenge for 2025 is to bring the company under a single vision, building our culture, integrating systems, and aligning our operations,” Bruce says. “We’re accelerating investment in high-added value processes such as sterile multi-doses and lyophilisation, expanding our development services, and reinforcing our role as a premium partner for small and medium-sized pharma and biotech companies.”
The company operates across 13 sites in three countries, with three specialised in development and ten focused on manufacturing. This geographic spread provides both local expertise and international reach for clients seeking European manufacturing solutions.
“There is always in such integration a strong focus on people,” Bruce emphasises. “We really want to bring everyone together around this transformation and merger.”
Digital Transformation: Creating Connected Manufacturing Systems
A cornerstone of Meribel’s strategy is the implementation of unified digital systems across all sites, creating a seamless experience for customers and operational efficiency for the business.
“One trend of the market today is to have customers and partners entangled together in the same systems to be more agile,” Bruce explains. “Our target is to integrate each of our 13 sites around single, powerful systems—whether ERP, eQMS, LIMS, CRM or HRIS—we want premium tools at the group level to serve customers as best we can.”
The ultimate goal is to establish centralised systems that enable real-time management across the entire group, creating a more responsive and efficient operation for customers navigating complex pharmaceutical development and manufacturing processes.
“We want to have centralised systems to permit us to manage the group and each single activity in real time,” he adds.
Specialised Capabilities Targeting Growing Niche Markets
Meribel is strategically focusing on three key areas where Bruce sees significant market potential: development activities, sterile multi-dose products, and lyophilisation.
“We have a base of dry forms, powders, sachets, sticks, and semi-solids which are not commodities but really our specialties,” Bruce explains. “This base will permit us to grow in three niche markets.”
Their development capabilities span three dedicated sites across Sweden and France, offering technical batches, clinical batches from phase one through phase three, and expanding sterile capabilities. Bruce notes they’ve recently obtained certification for sterile products in 2023 and plan to extend this to lyophilisation.
“We will accept to develop products even if they’ll not be produced in our sites at the end,” Bruce says, highlighting their commitment to supporting clients at early stages.
For sterile multi-dose products, particularly preservative-free nasal sprays and eye drops, the company is completing validation on a new line with approximately 25 million units of capacity, which already has significant customer interest.
“We see that the demand in this market is growing due to screen use, pollution, and the ageing of the population,” Bruce notes. “Regarding preservative-free, we see that in Europe we are much more advanced than the US, so the US market will launch soon, creating additional opportunities.”
In lyophilisation, Meribel boasts approximately 20 freeze dryers across their network, ranging from lab scale to 35 square metres, with both non-sterile and sterile capabilities. Their specialties include both injectable products and advanced non-sterile products where they can maintain strains alive during the cycle.
Customer-Centric Quality Focus
Initial customer response to the new venture has been positive, with many welcoming a new player in the CDMO space backed by strong investors committed to significant investment.
“The first reaction of customers is really positive to see a new player enter the market,” Bruce says. “We are supported by strong investors, Blue Wolf Capital Partners, that have the target to invest significantly in our sites to permit us to be a premium CDMO.”
Bruce emphasises that survey data shows customers are seeking higher levels of quality and service. “To achieve this level, we believe we need to invest strongly, first in our people, but also in our systems, to permit us to achieve a high level of service.”
For existing customers, Bruce’s priority is continuity: “The first topic with me in such a transformation is to guarantee customers that we’ll continue to deliver at least at the same level of service. And then we have a promise behind that to improve this level of service.”
Operational Excellence and Talent Development
Bruce’s operational philosophy centres around deploying operational excellence throughout the organisation, building on the strong lean manufacturing expertise already present in some facilities.
“We have the desire and ambition to deploy operational excellence through all our sites,” he explains. “We have a couple of sites with a very high level of expertise in lean manufacturing. The idea is to build on these sites and transfer best practices to others, creating one single methodology around a lean approach.”
People are central to Meribel’s strategy, with Bruce emphasising the importance of promoting internal talent: “We already have throughout our network a lot of talents doing an amazing job. The idea is to promote these people as much as we can internally, making succession plans and managing talents throughout the network.”
The company is taking an international approach to talent acquisition, focusing on skills rather than location. “We are an international company, and for us what’s important is to acquire talents wherever they are. Today with modern systems, it’s easier to communicate. If the best quality expert is based in Germany, for example, we will learn to work as a network altogether.”
Sustainability as Core Business Strategy
Sustainability features prominently in Meribel’s operations, serving both as a motivational topic for employees and fulfilling the company’s responsibility to minimise environmental impact.
“Sustainability is a key topic first for all the people in the company—I can see it every day that they have concerns about the planet and want to work for a company taking care about this topic,” Bruce explains. “And on the other side, we have as a company a responsibility in our territories to limit our impact.”
Their sustainability strategy includes developing non-financial reports, implementing a platform to calculate their carbon footprint, pursuing certifications, investing in energy savings, and partnering with customers on early-stage development to incorporate sustainability from the beginning.
“We want to be part of the solution, not just ticking the ESG box,” Bruce emphasises.
Future Growth and Market Outlook
Looking ahead, Bruce identifies three key priorities for Meribel’s first year: successful people integration, systems harmonisation, and strategic investment in their three core domains.
“We see the demand of the market is very high, with customers asking if we’re willing to invest, how much, and when we’ll have new lines. We need to provide these answers this year,” Bruce says. “We’ll prioritise with customers willing to commit to volumes, so it will be a collaborative discussion.”
Despite industry challenges, Bruce remains confident about the market outlook, noting that regulatory requirements continue to increase, particularly with the implementation of Annex 1. “I’m always confident because we have great teams. There are cycles and sometimes crises, but with the right team working together, we can accomplish a lot.”
Bruce sees industry trends moving toward greater specialisation: “We want to develop our expertise in our domains of excellence to be closer to our customers. We want to work on high-added value products and processes, partnering from the very early stages to deliver the right solutions.”
“Meribel Pharma Solutions is not a subcontractor—we are a partner to our customers to help them grow in our domains of expertise,” he emphasises.
When asked what excites him most about leading this new venture, Bruce points to two factors: “It’s people on one side and technology on the other. What motivates me is bringing our 2,000 people around a single project and driving them to success—to deliver better for our customers and make life easier for patients.”
“We really want to raise the level of the CDMO world,” he concludes. “As an engineer, I’m also excited about investing in our technologies. I can feel great excitement throughout the company and from myself as we build something truly special in European pharmaceutical manufacturing.”
To find out more, you can meet Bruce and the Meribel team at CDMO Live 2025 , 7-8 May, 2025.
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