Fueled by a return to organic revenue growth in the third quarter of 2026, U.S.-headquartered life science tools company Avantor says it is on a path to sustainable growth thanks to stronger commercial execution and improving end-market conditions for its products, which enable biopharma research and development (R&D) and production.

Organic revenue growth for Avantor’s Bioscience & Medtech Products (BMP) business “turned positive” in the third quarter. BMP revenue was $464.5 million — a reported increase of 3.5% versus the prior-year period, exceeding expectations.

William Blair analysts in a report last month pointed to the biopharma industry’s funding momentum, which “remained strong” in the third quarter, with total funding of $23.3 billion up 35% year-over-year and marking the fourth-highest funding quarter dating back to 2022.

Funding trends are among the leading indicator data — including product pipeline and R&D spending — that the analysts contend are driving demand for the life science tools and biopharma outsourcing industries.

Avantor is seeing momentum among large pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers, who continue to invest in R&D pipelines, as well as improving demand from early-stage biotech companies. Avantor’s management also credits the company’s comprehensive “Revival” program for sharpening its strategic focus and enabling it to make progress in what ultimately results in a financial and operational turnaround.

CEO Emmanuel Ligner, who took the helm of Avantor a little more than a year ago, told Pharma Manufacturing “funding is better for the early-stage biotechs, and we see that starting to transform into spending,” while noting that Europe is “lagging” Asia and the United States due to high energy costs, pressure on government funding, and broader macroeconomic challenges.

“When embarking on a transformation, the most important players are your people,” Ligner said. “We have an organization of roughly 13,000 people and what is important is how they react, engage, understand the why, and get on executing it.”

Avantor’s Revival program is described as a multi-year “operating reset” built around five priorities, including investing in the company’s manufacturing and supply chain.

“It’s about the network that we have and making sure we produce on time, the right quality, and improve our service level and our logistics,” according to Ligner. “One year into this program, we are in much better shape. We are not done yet, for sure. We are in the middle of it. But the team reacted extremely well to the change, and we’re moving forward with a lot more confidence and momentum.”  

Manufacturing initiatives yield results       

Ligner told analysts in an Oct. 28 earnings call that Avantor has increased manufacturing throughput during 2026 by leveraging Revival program-related operational initiatives.

“In early September, a key North America manufacturing line produced more than 25,000 kilograms of product in a single week, exceeding its original design capacity target and achieving nearly 99% overall equipment effectiveness ratio for that week,” Ligner said. “This is a good example of the operational improvement we are making across BMP.”

Avantor’s BMP business provides specialized, high-purity chemicals, materials, and fluid-handling products. According to the company, its process chemicals are used in 85% of the world’s top 20 commercial biologic therapies.

Avantor is advancing its digital manufacturing strategy, including the development of digital workflow and electronic batch records at two key manufacturing sites, according to Ligner. These capabilities are improving quality, reducing deviation, and enhancing delivery performance, which will support a “more efficient manufacturing network over time,” he said.

In April, Avantor expanded the company’s quality control capabilities at its St. Louis, Missouri manufacturing site by adding microbial and stability testing. The enhanced facility provides GMP-aligned microbial testing and ICH-compliant stability testing and storage in North America, supporting regulated biopharma production operations. The capabilities are meant to localize testing previously conducted by third-party laboratories and global networks, bringing them closer to U.S.-based manufacturing sites.

“We just opened this year a new lab which is very important for our network,” Ligner said. “We have manufacturing [sites] in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, California, and New Jersey.”  

Last year, Avantor announced infrastructure expansions including increased production capacity for purified water and water-for-injection-based hydration solutions in Ohio, as well as expanded research and manufacturing capabilities in New Jersey. 

Ligner expects the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by the biopharma industry to benefit Avantor due to increased productivity in developing new molecules. “We are very exciting about AI and the impact it has potentially on the business, and we see that as a tailwind like the rest of the industry,” he told analysts last month.

Executives will provide details on Avantor’s long-term growth strategy at its Dec. 8 Investor Day. For now, Avantor said it wants to leverage its leadership in chemicals to capitalize on the next phase of biopharma growth, with large molecule biologics driving the need for greater purity in chemicals.

“Chemistry is at the heart of all of this,” Ligner said.

The company’s BMP business is improving existing products and formulations to ensure its leading brands can adapt to market requirements.

“We have a very strong sense of responsibility,” Ligner added. “We understand the criticality of the products that we are making, so that we keep our plants and processes top notch to make sure we deliver the quality that is necessary.”