Curia touts its global network of 20 facilities amid tariff, geopolitical uncertainty
As a global contract development and manufacturing organization, Curia’s service offerings cover small molecules, generic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and biologics, running from discovery through commercialization with integrated regulatory, analytical, and sterile fill-finish capabilities.
CEO Philip Macnabb, who took the helm of Curia in 2023, told Pharma Manufacturing that the company has 3,200 employees at 20 locations in the U.S., Europe and India — employing more than 600 scientists worldwide — with a global footprint specifically designed to help customers navigate their complex R&D and manufacturing challenges.
“We’re a global CDMO with 30 years of experience,” Macnabb said. “We focus on developing our scientific expertise in our facilities to lease out for customers to utilize us to get their programs through their clinical stages into commercialization — and then continue on their commercial journey with them.”
Of Curia’s 20 sites, eight are API manufacturing locations in the U.S., France, Italy, Spain, and India, six facilities are scientific laboratories, and four have sterile fill-finish operations.
“We’re in India with both small molecule discovery and development and API manufacturing,” Macnabb said. “In Western Europe, we’re in Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the UK with various assets, both small molecule and sterile fill-finish.”
Last month, Curia announced expansions at its sterile fill-finish sites in Glasgow, UK, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, as part of efforts to increase manufacturing capacity. Curia’s Albuquerque facility is undergoing a multi-year, $200 million expansion, adding two isolated filling lines and over 70,000 square feet of manufacturing space to the 200,000-square-foot site.
A VarioSys Flex Line in Albuquerque, suitable for small-scale biologics and non-potent small molecules can accommodate syringes, cartridges, and vials, is currently going through commissioning. The new high-speed vial line at the site will begin commissioning in the third quarter of 2025 and will include two autoloaded freeze driers, automated vial inspection and labeling/packaging for 2R to 30R vials.
The company’s U.S. sterile fill-finish network also includes sites in Burlington, Massachusetts, as well as Camarillo and Thousand Oaks, California.
“It’s nice to have onshore finishing capabilities where the customers and patients are,” Macnabb said.
A valued US footprint
On the small molecule and biologics discovery side, Curia operates a facility with approximately 70 scientists in Buffalo, New York. At its locations in Albany and Rensselaer, New York, the company offers small molecule discovery and development as well as small molecule API manufacturing, respectively.
The Rensselaer site is Curia’s largest API manufacturing facility globally, which was expanded last year with a fully automated production suite as part of a more than $35 million investment. “It’s been highly sought after,” Macnabb said about the automated production suite. “It might be the first U.S. API new construction in maybe 20 years. There’s only a few CDMOs with a meaningful U.S. footprint, of which we are one.”
Curia also operates an API manufacturing facility in Springfield, Missouri. Biologics discovery operations including monoclonal antibody (mAb) are in Hayward, California, and biologics development and manufacturing are in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
“We are actually booked out from here to the year-end in our mAb suite,” Macnabb said.
Asked about the looming threat of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Macnabb said Curia — with its global footprint — is well-positioned to deal with the current trade and geopolitical tensions.
“We’re built for the long term,” he said. “I’ve always liked our footprint and I certainly like it now. We’re definitely getting some interest on our U.S. assets. Tariffs or no tariffs, I'm excited about the future.”
UK fill-finish capability gets a boost
Curia’s Glasgow site, with experience in antibody-drug conjugates, lipid nanoparticles, and complex formulations, will see its batch sizes increase to 20,000 vials. The facility in the UK currently has two isolator-based vial filling lines and will add a third line, more than doubling current GMP batch size.
“We’ve got a little bit of everything but historically known as a small molecule business that’s grown up and expanded into biologics and sterile fill-finish,” Macnabb said, noting that Curia’s investment in its Glasgow site underscores the company’s commitment to being an end-to-end CDMO with an integrated, isolator-based vial filling line and lyophilizer suitable for a broad range of drug products.
The $20 million Glasgow expansion will strengthen Curia’s overall offering of sterile injectable product development from pre-formulation through the clinical phases and commercial manufacturing, according to Macnabb.
“We’re building out sort of an end-to-end story,” he said. “Although we don’t have oral solid dose, we offer final dosage format — which is the expansion of our sterile operation in the UK.”
