Bachem is one of the three CDMOs — alongside PolyPeptide and CordenPharma — that anchor large-scale peptide API manufacturing for the global pharma industry. The Swiss company holds an estimated 55–60% of global peptide CDMO revenue when combined with its peers, and its capacity decisions shape what the next wave of GLP-1 and macrocyclic peptide drugs can actually be supplied at scale.
The 2025–2026 build-out is sized for the GLP-1 surge and the post-503B compounding shift. Bachem's headquarters in Bubendorf is being expanded (Module I H1 2026 completion); Vista, California is scaling toward one-metric-ton production capacity; St Helens in the UK is upgrading; and a new Sisslerfeld site in Switzerland is under construction. A signed work order in late 2025 secured CHF 1 billion in peptide deliveries over five years (2025–2029). Bachem also announced an April 2026 strategic partnership and asset acquisition to scale GLP-1 and next-gen peptide API supply, and was a featured speaker at TIDES USA 2026 (May 11–14 Boston).
Leadership transitioned in 2026. Anne-Kathrin Stoller succeeded Thomas Meier as CEO on January 1, 2026 after 19 years at Bachem in roles spanning Business Development Europe, CMO, and COO Americas. On May 25, 2026 Chief Commercial Officer Torsten Wöhr departed for an opportunity outside the company, and Stoller assumed the CCO role in addition to her CEO responsibilities until a successor is appointed — consolidating leadership during the company's largest capacity buildout in its history.
Stories here cover capacity expansions, contract wins, leadership transitions, and CDMO market dynamics. See [[peptide-cdmo]], [[manufacturing]], and [[tides-usa-2026]].
Peptide CDMO announced investments have crossed $2.4 billion year-to-date in 2026, driven primarily by GLP-1 demand and a broadening pipeline of therapeutic peptides beyond the incretin class. Anchor programs: Samsung Biologics' CHF 1.46 billion / $1.8 billion all-cash tender offer for PolyPeptide Group AG (tender prospectus targeted for end-of-August publication, offer period September 15 to October 12); Bachem's more than CHF 500 million Sisslerfeld greenfield site collaboration in Switzerland (commercial production 2030) plus the recent Building K commercial GMP ramp; CordenPharma's confirmed $500 million Boulder expansion to 42,000+ liters by 2028 plus greater-than-€500 million greenfield near Basel; AmbioPharm's US-based supply scaling; and Lonza's SPPS capacity extensions. The global peptide CDMO market reached $4.59 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $29.12 billion by 2035 (CAGR 20.3%) according to newly-published market research. The build-out is the binding upstream constraint on how much of the GLP-1, macrocyclic, and peptide-drug-conjugate pipeline reaches commercial scale.
The broader peptide contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) consolidation wave continues across August 2026 with three concurrent developments. First, Samsung Biologics' pending $1.8 billion all-cash tender offer for PolyPeptide Group AG at CHF 44.31 per share (CHF 1.46 billion total equity value, 40% premium to undisturbed share price) advances toward closing: the formal tender offer prospectus is expected to be published by end of August 2026 following Draupnir Holding B.V. (55.65% stake) commitment to tender and PolyPeptide's Board of Directors unanimous recommendation, with closing expected toward end of 2026. Second, Gland Pharma and Neuland Laboratories announced August 11, 2026 a long-term sterile API manufacturing partnership in Visakhapatnam, India, extending India's growing role as a peptide API manufacturing hub. Third, Bachem, CordenPharma, and AmbioPharm continue capacity build-outs. Collective capacity positioning targets the multi-billion-dollar demand wave from semaglutide and tirzepatide commercial-scale API (roughly $17 billion combined active pharmaceutical ingredient market by 2028 per industry estimates) plus retatrutide, amycretin, VK2735, ribupatide, and next-generation combination peptide Phase 3 programs. The consolidation trajectory suggests peptide CDMO capacity concentration among a smaller number of large operators through the end of the decade, with the Samsung acquisition of PolyPeptide as the anchor transaction.
Bachem AG (SIX: BANB) announced May 25, 2026 that Chief Commercial Officer Torsten Wöhr decided to pursue a new opportunity outside the company. CEO Anne-Kathrin Stoller — who succeeded Thomas Meier as CEO on January 1, 2026 after 19 years at Bachem in increasingly senior roles (Head of Business Development & Sales Europe, Chief Marketing Officer, COO Americas) — assumed the CCO role in addition to her CEO responsibilities until a successor is appointed. Bachem is one of two major peptide CDMOs supplying the global GLP-1 API market alongside PolyPeptide; the company is in the middle of multi-site capacity expansion across Switzerland (Bubendorf Module I completion H1 2026) and the US (San Diego, King of Prussia). The CCO transition follows months of senior turnover and comes as GLP-1 manufacturing capacity has become the rate-limiting constraint for the entire commercial peptide industry.
SNS Insider published its 2026 Peptide Synthesis Market Report on Tuesday May 19, projecting the global peptide synthesis market to reach $1,889.88M by 2035 from current levels, anchored on GLP-1 receptor agonist demand and the broader peptide therapeutics pipeline. The report tracks the major SPPS capacity expansions: CordenPharma's $500M+ Boulder Colorado site adding 25,000L+ to reach 42,000L total by 2028, Bachem's three-site expansion (Bubendorf Switzerland, St Helens UK, Vista California) plus a new Sisseln Switzerland facility, and PolyPeptide's €200M credit facility supporting the doubling of 2023 revenue by 2028. The structural read: incretin-class peptide demand (semaglutide, tirzepatide, retatrutide, mazdutide, survodutide, eleglipron) plus the next-generation pipeline (NK2R agonists, amylin combos, peptide-drug conjugates) is the demand wave the CDMOs are positioning against.
TIDES USA 2026 wrapped at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston on Thursday May 14 after four days of peptide and oligonucleotide CDMO programming. The CMC strategy tracks featured Bachem, PolyPeptide, CordenPharma, AmbioPharm, and Gilead on GMP capacity, large-scale SPPS economics, and the supply-chain economics of oral macromolecule manufacturing. The closing-day Robert Langer keynote framed peptide-LNP delivery as the next major engineering frontier. The conference concluded with Catalent's Zydis fast-dispersion + oral macromolecule platform presentations and Novo Nordisk's CMC strategy panel on oral semaglutide and the next-generation amycretin program. The week's combined manufacturing footprint (TIDES + the PolyPeptide EUR 200M credit facility on May 9 + the May 6 Lilly Lebanon $4.5B investment) anchors the CDMO buildout heading toward the 2028 capacity targets.
TIDES USA 2026 — the year's leading oligo, peptide, and mRNA therapeutics conference — opens May 11–14 in Boston, with six concurrent scientific tracks and 200+ presentations. Programmatic highlights include CMC strategy for complex dual and triple agonists under regulatory scrutiny, defining defensible starting materials for GLP-1 APIs, and how CDMOs are securing scarce GMP suite capacity dominated by big-pharma volume contracts. Bachem, PolyPeptide, CordenPharma, Gilead, and Novo Nordisk teams are scheduled to speak — the same week as Hims & Hers' Q1 print and within the new AJMC oral-peptides public-facing news cycle.
ResearchAndMarkets released a Peptide and Oligonucleotide CDMO Market Research Report on April 30 forecasting the global market expanding from $2.42B in 2025 to $2.7B in 2026 (11.9% CAGR), reaching $4.03B by 2030. The report names Bachem, PolyPeptide, CordenPharma, and AmbioPharm as the dominant capacity holders capturing roughly 55–60% of global revenue. Demand for GLP-1 receptor agonists and siRNA drugs is outpacing GMP suite availability, giving CDMOs unusual pricing power in multi-year capacity contracts. The report frames manufacturing capacity as the binding constraint on the next wave of peptide therapeutics.
Swiss peptide CDMO Bachem announced a strategic partnership and asset acquisition in April 2026 to scale large-scale peptide API production. The move responds to surging demand for GLP-1 and next-generation peptide drugs — the global peptide synthesis market is now projected to reach $2.26 billion by 2033 at an 11.4% CAGR. Bachem previously secured a CHF 1 billion peptide supply contract and is operating three site expansions to address capacity constraints that have periodically disrupted semaglutide and tirzepatide supply.