Thermo Fisher continues to invest in pharma services capabilities in 2026

Thermo Fisher Scientific is making targeted 2026 investments in capacity, integrated development and manufacturing, and digital enablement to ensure customers of its pharma services reap the benefits of a global network with local access.

The company’s global network includes over 60 pharma services sites across 24 countries employing a workforce of more than 2,700 scientists and engineers. Pharma services is a high-single-digit growth business for Thermo Fisher, which contends it is making progress with its investment strategy to better support customers.

“We continue to invest in our capability and capacity expansion with the aim of strengthening development and manufacturing services to support our customers,” said Anil Kane, global head of technical and scientific affairs for Thermo Fisher’s pharma services.

According to Kane, Thermo Fisher supports its customers from preclinical to clinical and through commercial manufacturing, offering a wide range of pharma services including active pharmaceutical ingredients, biologics, viral vectors, cell therapies, formulation, clinical trial solutions, logistics services, commercial manufacturing, as well as packaging.

“We have invested and have expanded manufacturing capabilities for high-demand drug products,” Kane said, noting that the company continues to make investments across its steriles network by expanding fill‑finish, packaging, and pharmaceutical development services for pre-filled syringes, liquid vials, and lyophilized formats.

Ridgefield, NJ and other sites

In July 2025, Thermo Fisher announced the acquisition of Sanofi’s sterile drug product manufacturing facility in Ridgefield, New Jersey, which specializes in fill‑finish and packaging of aseptic injectable medications and is now part of Thermo Fisher’s pharma services business. The site is being positioned as a North American hub for integrated sterile fill-finish, autoinjector final assembly, and commercial packaging.

“This is an area of growing demand,” Kane noted, with increasing “requirements for manufacturing patient-centric, self-administered injectable therapies.”  

Last week, Thermo Fisher announced that it will collaborate with SHL Medical to bring sterile manufacturing, device assembly, and commercial packaging together at the Ridgefield site. SHL Medical’s autoinjector platform will be integrated with Thermo Fisher’s sterile manufacturing network, providing pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers with end-to-end support from drug product manufacturing through device assembly, packaging, and distribution.

Kane made the case that the advantage of the Ridgefield site is that it will bring together in one location the manufacturing and packaging of not just the drug product, but also the necessary components, providing fully integrated drug-device solutions. 

“The addition of autoinjector capabilities in Ridgefield complements Thermo Fisher’s global network, including sites in Allentown, Pa., Horsham, UK, and planned capacity in Greenville, N.C., creating a scalable platform across development and commercial stages,” the company said. “Continued investments across its steriles network, including Greenville, N.C., Ferentino, Italy and expansion in APAC, further strengthen the company’s ability to support customers with integrated, global manufacturing solutions.”

Together, these investments will boost production by approximately 680 million units which will “help us to manufacture over 1.5 billion units annually,” according to Kane.

Focus on US investment

In October 2025, vaccine company Vaxcyte signed a long-term agreement with Thermo Fisher to add commercial fill-finish manufacturing in the U.S. for its broad-spectrum pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Under the deal worth $1 billion, Thermo Fisher will provide dedicated fill-finish capacity and related services at its Greenville facility.

The Greenville and Ridgefield site expansions align with Thermo Fisher’s plans to bolster U.S. capacity. At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January 2026, CEO Marc Casper said the company’s pharma services business won an undisclosed number of contracts to help its customers move manufacturing from Asia or Europe to the U.S.

Pharma services — one of the world’s largest contract development and manufacturing organizations — is benefitting from the reshoring of manufacturing to the U.S., according to Casper. In April 2025, Thermo Fisher announced it was making a $2 billion commitment to domestic manufacturing and R&D over the next four years. Of that amount, $1.5 billion is earmarked for capital expenditures to enhance and expand manufacturing in the U.S.