Q&A: WuXi AppTec’s key investment focus is on expanding capabilities for new modalities
With 20 R&D and manufacturing sites across Asia, Europe, and North America, WuXi AppTec offers integrated, end-to-end services through its Contract Research, Development, and Manufacturing Organization (CRDMO) platform.
In 2025, the company is accelerating its global development and manufacturing capacity expansion, growing both total reactor volume of small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and total reactor volume of solid phase peptide synthesizers. According to Minzhang Chen, co-CEO of WuXi AppTec, the essence of the company’s integrated CRDMO model is simple: follow the science, follow the customer, and follow the molecule.
Chen has over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, having played important roles in R&D and commercialization of multiple innovative drugs for global launches. Formerly the director of technical operations at Vertex, Chen earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Peking University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Minnesota.
In a Q&A with Pharma Manufacturing Editor in Chief Greg Slabodkin, Chen discusses tariffs as well as WuXi AppTec’s business strategy and investments amid external uncertainties.
Greg Slabodkin: What is the current business environment for the CRDMO industry?
Minzhang Chen: The CRDMO industry continues to post strong growth. WuXi AppTec is contributing to this trajectory by partnering with startups and Big Pharma companies to speed delivery of new therapeutics to patients.
By focusing on quality, speed, and cost, we help biotech and pharmaceutical companies accelerate drug development, enhance efficiency, and deliver new therapies to patients faster. The FDA approved 50 novel drugs in 2024 and 21 in the first half of this year, reflecting a sustained pace of innovation driven by such partnerships.
As innovation continues to drive pharmaceutical R&D, the increasing size and complexity of drug molecules, especially new modalities like oligonucleotides, peptides, targeted protein degraders (TPDs) and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) require greater knowledge and sophisticated approach throughout the R&D process, from chemical synthesis to manufacturing, quality control, and regulatory compliance.
Customers turn to us for our technical know-how, specialized expertise and scalable capacity in working with these complex molecules. They also look to us to help control costs, improve efficiencies and mitigate risks.
Are U.S. tariffs impacting WuXi AppTec? What is the company’s mitigation strategy?
Chen: We did not observe significant changes in customer ordering behavior due to tariffs during the first half of the year.
Tariffs remain a structural challenge for the entire industry in the current global trade landscape. While the situation is fluid and continues to evolve, our priority remains the same: ensuring that we continue enabling our customers to deliver innovative therapies to patients worldwide with speed, scale and quality. To that end, we remain focused on enhancing our core CRDMO capabilities, expanding global capacity, and improving operating efficiency to create greater value for our customers.
How many facilities does WuXi AppTec have? What are their locations and capabilities/capacities?
Chen: This year marks the company’s 25th anniversary. We have built the company from a single 7,000 square-foot laboratory into a global enterprise. Today we operate more than 20 R&D and manufacturing sites across Asia, Europe, and North America.
In the United States, for example, our San Diego site serves as a center of excellence in screening, discovery biology, pharmacology, process R&D, and GMP manufacturing for small molecule API and drug product. We’re building a new campus in Middletown, Delaware, dedicated to the manufacturing, packaging, and testing of capsules and tablets for both clinical and commercial distribution, which is expected to commence operations by the end of 2026.
In Europe, our Munich site focuses on early-stage drug discovery and also provides customized services in X-ray crystallography, protein supply, and biophysical analysis.
Our Couvet, Switzerland, facility specializes in drug product manufacturing and packaging, offering flexibility in late-stage clinical and commercial-scale production. We expect to add spray drying capabilities in 2026, followed by parenteral drug manufacturing and lipid nanoparticle (LNP) capabilities.
In Asia, we operate from multiple locations. In 2024, we broke ground to build an R&D and manufacturing site in Singapore, which will offer API manufacturing for small molecules, oligonucleotides, peptides and complex chemical conjugates. Phase I operations there are expected to commence in 2027.
Where is WuXi AppTec investing to support future growth?
Chen: Our strategy is clear: follow the science, follow the customer, and follow the molecule. This is the essence of our integrated CRDMO model, supporting us to stay at the forefront of the industry and create value for our customers.
A key focus of our investments is on expanding capabilities related to new modalities. For example, our WuXi TIDES business offers integrated services for oligonucleotides, peptides, and conjugates, including both API and drug product from discovery to commercial stages.
In response to rising market demand, particularly in the GLP-1 sector, WuXi TIDES will further expand its overall solid phase peptide synthesizers (SPPS) capacity in China to more than 100,000 liters by the end of 2025, and we plan to add additional capacity at our new facility in Singapore.
We have also accelerated capacity construction to meet manufacturing demand for late-stage clinical trial and commercial use. In March 2025, our Changzhou and Taixing API manufacturing sites successfully passed FDA on-site inspections with no single observation. These two sites are critical manufacturing bases for both WuXi STA, our small molecule CDMO, and WuXi TIDES. By the end of 2025, our total reactor volume for small molecule APIs is expected to reach over 4,000k liters.
Our Couvet site is boosting capacity to better serve European customers. We have doubled oral dose and tablet production capacity and are adding spray drying capabilities that we expect to be operational in 2026. In the United States, our new manufacturing facility in Delaware is set to launch operations by the end of 2026. A new API facility in Singapore is expected to begin operating in 2027.
What technologies is WuXi AppTec investing in?
Chen: WuXi TIDES is one of our fastest-growing businesses, offering a full range of CRDMO capabilities from discovery synthesis, process development and manufacturing of novel monomers, linkers and ligands, oligonucleotides, peptides and complex synthetic conjugates at any scale. This streamlined approach enables customers to advance therapies from concept to clinical trials more quickly and cost-effectively. For example, we worked on one complex peptide-PMO conjugates (PPMO) project where we helped our client advance a candidate to Investigational New Drug (IND) filing in just 11 months by having multiple teams work in parallel to optimize synthesis, conjugation, formulation, and analytical methods.
We have also invested significantly in TPD compounds. We have partnered with more than 150 companies in this area. We have synthesized more than 188,000 complex TPDs, more than 70 of which have advanced to preclinical candidate (PCC) status and more than 10 of which reached late-stage development.
In addition, we also continue to embrace the adoption of green technologies like continuous manufacturing and enzyme technology, which minimize the use of chemicals in our R&D and manufacturing processes to meet fast-growing customer demands.
Is WuXi STA continuing to expand spray-dried dispersion (SDD) capabilities?
Chen: Yes. As a subsidiary of WuXi AppTec, WuXi STA commissioned a new PSD-4 spray dryer at our Taixing API manufacturing facility in July, further increasing our commercial spray drying manufacturing capacity. In May, we broke ground for a new SDD manufacturing building at our Couvet site, with operations expected to begin in 2026.
Spray-dried dispersion is a key technology of WuXi STA’s bioavailability enhancement platform, enabling end-to-end solutions from preclinical R&D in tens of milligram scale to commercial manufacturing in metric ton scale.
How important is sustainability to WuXi AppTec?
Chen: At WuXi AppTec, everything we do is driven by our commitment to enabling customers to build a healthier world. Like most of our customers, we strategically integrate sustainability priorities into our daily business operations.
In recent years, we have increased our investments in sustainability projects such as geothermal energy, solar power, and rainwater recycling at our Couvet and Munich sites. Across our global operations, we are implementing process optimization and promoting green technologies, such as continuous manufacturing and enzyme technology in our R&D and manufacturing processes. Such efforts are aimed at progressively enhancing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions within our business operations.
We also work with suppliers to reduce absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with purchased goods and services, fostering progress toward a low-carbon supply chain. This year, WuXi AppTec became a Supplier Partner of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI), joining collective efforts with customers and other industry peers to promote a more sustainable and responsible way of doing business.
We are proud that our near-term emissions reduction targets were recently validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and that our sustainability achievements have been acknowledged by major global rating agencies, including MSCI, EcoVadis, CDP and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).
