In the latest episode of the “Chats with Chaudhrey” podcast, Carsten Press shared his thoughts on what made this year so remarkable – for Vetter and the entire biopharma industry – and what he sees coming next in 2023. Together with host Rizwan Chaudhrey, he discussed how Vetter has navigated numerous challenges to maintain its commitment to supplying high-quality injectable drug products for patients worldwide.
Despite the many issues roiling the global economy, Vetter still hit multiple important milestones in 2022:
- Opening the new Rankweil clinical development site and completing the site’s first customer fills
- Furthering the Xpert Alliance with Rentschler Biopharma
- Publishing our organization’s first sustainability report
When asked about industry developments in 2022, Mr. Press discussed the continued growth in demand for parenteral medications, as well as the continuing surge in complex oncology products and treatments for rare diseases. In the past year, multiple cell-, gene-, and DNA-based therapies made the leap from scientific innovation to groundbreaking medications. This explosion of growth has increased demand for technologically sophisticated manufacturing support from CDMOs like Vetter.
Looking forward to 2023, Carsten foresees ongoing challenges with supply security and cost increases across the global economy. For CDMOs, these difficulties will be paired with ongoing evolution of drug developers’ service needs, as drug portfolios continue their shift from single blockbuster products to a co-existence of blockbuster and smaller-batch-size products.
Asked which trends will shape the coming year for CDMOs, Carsten pointed to several important dynamics:
- Growing demand for more flexibility in formats, packaging, and devices
- Continued customer focus on optimizing time-to-market
- Enhanced operational digitization to enhance efficiency
In 2023, Vetter will also stay focused on sustainable growth and delivering the highest quality possible for its customers. The company will continue to invest in expanding capacities in several areas with surging market demand, including development services, aseptic filling, visual inspection, and packaging. These planned expansions will be executed in tandem with optimizing the infrastructure across all sites.