Throughout 2025, Off Script: A Pharma Manufacturing Podcast featured conversations with experts across a range of disciplines, offering insight into the forces shaping pharmaceutical manufacturing. From investment trends and advanced therapies to policy pressures and emerging production technologies, these interviews explored what mattered most to the industry during a year of continued change.
The episodes spanned topics including CDMO funding, cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing, U.S. generic drug production, and continuous manufacturing. Below are the Off Script conversations that resonated most with listeners this year.
The state of CDMO funding: 2025 in review
Interest in contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) funding trends topped the list for Off Script listeners in 2025. Our most-downloaded episode featured Brian Scanlan, Advisor of Life Sciences at Edgewater Capital Partners, who shared his perspective on CDMO market and investment dynamics amid tighter capital markets.
Scanlan reflected on how his outlook for clinical CROs and CDMOs has held up, what softness among early-stage service providers signals about funding flows, where investor interest is shifting across therapeutic modalities, and why specialization is increasingly outweighing scale as a driver of CDMO success.
CGT manufacturing challenges and opportunities
Cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing also captured significant listener attention. In a conversation with Sharon Anderson, VP of Scientific Affairs at the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, the discussion focused on the evolving challenges and opportunities facing CGT developers.
Anderson examined how manufacturers are balancing the need for standardization and scalability with the inherently personalized nature of CGT products. She also weighed the benefits and limitations of centralized versus decentralized manufacturing models and highlighted how automation and other emerging technologies are helping pave the way toward more efficient CGT production.
Charting pharma manufacturing trends
Following the release of CRB’s Horizons: Life Sciences report—which explored how the industry is building resilience, expanding pipelines, and empowering its workforce amid trade uncertainty and regulatory change—we spoke with Peter Walters, Fellow of Advanced Therapies at CRB.
Walters highlighted key findings from the report, including the industry’s continued movement toward continuous manufacturing, the maturation of advanced therapies and emerging modalities, and the growing role of standardization across global manufacturing networks.
The economics behind U.S. generic drug manufacturing
With ongoing threats of industry-specific tariffs prompting major pharmaceutical companies to pledge reshoring efforts, questions remain about where U.S. generic drug manufacturers—largely exempt from these tariffs—fit into the broader policy landscape.
To explore the economic realities of generic drug production, we spoke with John Murphy III, President and CEO of the Association for Accessible Medicines. Murphy offered a high-level view of the shifts reshaping the generic drug market, unpacking the drivers of drug shortages, the complexities of global API sourcing, and the policy reforms needed to strengthen and sustain domestic generic manufacturing.
Modular flow chemistry and the future of continuous manufacturing
As pharmaceutical companies pursue faster, more flexible, and more sustainable approaches to small-molecule development, flow chemistry and modular continuous manufacturing platforms continue to gain traction. However, challenges around integration, scale-up, and regulatory expectations remain.
In an episode featuring Hovione’s Christoph Brücher and Microinnova’s Dirk Kirschneck, the discussion centered on their collaboration to advance flow chemistry and continuous manufacturing. The conversation explored how plug-and-play modular systems can accelerate process transfer, streamline scale-up, and reduce waste and energy use, as well as how digital tools and evolving regulatory guidance under ICH Q13 are shaping the next generation of continuous manufacturing.
About the Author
Andy Lundin
Senior Editor
Andy Lundin has more than 10 years of experience in business-to-business publishing producing digital content for audiences in the medical and automotive industries, among others. He currently works as Senior Editor for Pharma Manufacturing and is responsible for feature writing and production of the podcast.
His prior publications include MEDQOR, a real-time healthcare business intelligence platform, and Bobit Business Media. Andy graduated from California State University-Fullerton in 2014 with a B.A. in journalism. He lives in Long Beach, California.