CXDMO INDUSTRY NEWS
Covering WuXi AppTec, WuXi Biologics, WuXi XDC, Pharmaron, Asymchem and Porton — China’s CXDMO leaders —
plus Samsung Biologics, Lonza and the global CDMO frontier: results, capacity, M&A and partnerships.
WuXi AppTec's integrated TIDES CRDMO platform helped a client advance a divalent dual-targeting siRNA–GalNAc conjugate from PCC to IND submission within 8 months, improving crude purity from 40% to 75%, nearly doubling yield, and enabling parallel drug substance and drug product development.
WuXi XDC (2268.HK) announced an out-licensing collaboration with Ona Therapeutics on its proprietary WuXiTecan-2 payload-linker technology: an exclusive global license for developing an ADC candidate against a single target, with deal value comprising an upfront payment, development/regulatory/sales milestones, plus tiered royalties on net sales upon commercialization. Building on their 2024 collaboration, this is the second partnership between the two companies — and WuXiTecan-2's second out-licensing deal within six months.
WuXi Biologics published a thought-leadership piece framing itself as the full-lifecycle 'expert' for complex molecules such as bispecifics and ADCs: H1 2026 added 169 integrated projects (71% bispecific/ADC), with complex molecules over 50% of H1 revenue (up ~30% YoY); technology matrix spanning WuXiBody™, WuXiDARx™, WuXia™ TrueSite and WuXiUP™ converts complex risk into industrialization certainty.
WuXi XDC announced GMP release of its first Singapore drug-product facility DP4 for bioconjugates, with annual capacity up to 8 million vials of liquid or lyophilized dosage form. From groundbreaking to GMP release in just 29 months, DP4 is the second capacity facility in Singapore after BCM3.
Porton (300363.SZ) announced that Dr. Yongli Zhong, former Principal Scientist at Merck & Co., has joined as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) to lead innovative process-technology solutions for customers. At Merck for 21 years, Dr. Zhong led process development for multiple innovative drugs from PCC to commercial, with 20+ patents and 90+ papers.
Generative-AI drug-discovery company Insilico Medicine (HKEX: 3696) reported H1 2026 results: total revenue US$106.3M (+287.2% YoY), gross margin 90.3%, net profit US$35.54M, adjusted net profit US$51.23M, operating cash flow positive; YTD BD contract value ~US$7.3B with 9 PCC nominations and 8 clinical advancements.
H1 revenue RMB 11.8B (+18.4% / +23.4% in USD), adjusted gross margin 48.4% (+2.8 ppts), adjusted net profit RMB 3.9B (+38.6%), free cash flow RMB 1.5B (5th year positive); total backlog US$25.1B, 1,064 integrated projects, 68 INDs filed, WuXia™ TrueSite in 70+ programs; BestChrom 51.1% stake sale and global capacity build-out.
Small-molecule players extend into linker-payloads, biologics players extend from mAbs into conjugation, and large CDMOs fill gaps in drug product and fill-finish — different starting points, the same destination: integrated XDC. China's H1 2026 license-out value neared USD 100B.
In 2026, with domestic biotech funding cold and legacy Western CDMOs retreating, top players are moving in opposite directions — WuXi turning "M&A + guaranteed orders" into a capacity harvester, while Lonza and Catalent use "divestment + refocusing" as a margin-repair playbook.