With 17 facilities in 10 countries around the world, Recipharm has a global presence with local expertise that rivals some of the biggest contract development and manufacturing organizations, according to CEO Greg Behar, who took the company’s reins in January 2024.
Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Behar claims the company —which became private in 2021 and has more than 5,000 employees worldwide — is “one of the oldest CDMOs out there” and is the fifth largest CDMO globally serving the biopharma industry.
Recipharm’s services include the manufacturing of solids, semi-solids, and liquids, supporting the small and large molecule sterile fill-finish needs of its customers, as well as advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) fill-finish and biologics development and manufacturing.
“We have done quite well in 2024 partnering in oral solids, sterile fill-finish and with our bio business,” Behar told Pharma Manufacturing. “We are partnering with eight out of the top 10 pharma,” he said, noting that Recipharm’s revenue last year — nearly $1 billion — grew in the high single digits and the company signed more than 100 biologics contracts.
“This was quite a strong performance given the markets in 2024,” Behar said. In 2025, he projects that Recipharm will exceed last year’s results by achieving double-digit growth.
For nearly three decades, Recipharm has grown organically and through the acquisition of more than 30 facilities. However, Behar contends that since he took Recipharm’s helm last year, the CDMO has “sharpened” its global network and divested some of its non-core sites to become a “more agile” company.
Global presence, local expertise
Currently, Recipharm operates development and manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the United States. According to Behar, Recipharm’s full-range of development and production capabilities for oral solid dosage (OSD) — from orphan drugs to blockbusters — have been significantly enhanced to meet the industry’s growing demands.
When it comes to OSD, Behar contends that the company has a large footprint and is the “leader” in Europe, including sites in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. Targeted investments in 2024 included the expansion of small molecule development capabilities at Recipharm’s center of excellence in Bengaluru, India, with a new sterile product lab.
The company also invested in three new GMP Pilot Scale suites for blending, tableting and hard capsule filling at its Oral Solid Development and Pilot Scale Center in Zwickau, Germany. The investments at Bengaluru and Zwickau include advanced material characterization equipment, a compression and compaction simulator, a Mini-Pactor for dry granulation, as well as pilot-scale capsule filler and a small-scale tablet press.
“Investment for us is focused more on development because this is where we think that we have an opportunity to increase earlier stage assets, basically compounds — large and small — that are in Phase 1, 2, and 3,” Behar said.
In January 2025, Recipharm’s biologics division ReciBioPharm — which has sites in Germany, Portugal, and the U.S. to work with customers to develop and commercialize ATMPs — was awarded a three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the global deployment of RNA continuous manufacturing technologies to low- and middle-income countries.
“Being able to bring continuous manufacturing to these countries for the next crisis, when it comes, is super important,” Behar said. “We’re not yet running any drug construct. We’re still in the piloting phase and we’ll choose the drug in 2025, but it should be probably a vaccine.”
The grant will enable worldwide implementation of an RNA continuous manufacturing platform and focus on the advancement of Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) — developed through an $82 million Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) project funded by the FDA — as well as predictive analytics software.
ReciBioPharm contends that its platform will improve the scalability, quality, and accessibility of RNA-based medicines, while helping to advance the company’s goal of developing fully integrated, continuous processes across the biomanufacturing industry.
From manufacturer to solution provider
With the goal of creating flexible, breakable extended-release tablets for global markets, Recipharm and Quebec-based Spektus Pharma announced in January 2025 that they will jointly develop and supply a portfolio of novel central nervous system-focused products using Spektus’ proprietary Flexitab oral drug delivery platform.
Designed specifically for titration-sensitive medications, Flexitab is an oral drug delivery technology that generates patent-protected extended-release tablets that can be broken into dose-proportional segments, with controlled drug release in both intact and broken forms. Recipharm and Spektus will initially target the growing antidepressant market, which they contend remains a “significant unmet need” for treatments that are more effective and better tolerated by patients.
“We have evolved our relationships with customers from product manufacturer to solution provider,” Behar said. “We’ve expanded what we do from pure API development with flow chemistry, for example, from Phase 2 onwards, offering also analytical services and product development with our full manufacturing capabilities.”
When it comes to manufacturing, Recipharm in February 2025 announced that its new modular sterile filling system, installed in Wasserburg, Germany, is fully operational and has successfully completed its first production run for a “leading” biotechnology company.
Recipharm’s system performs aseptic filling within a Grade A isolator and operates in full compliance with GMP standards, according to the company, which claims that — unlike traditional large-scale systems — its unit is optimized for small-batch production providing a fast and flexible solution for clinical development projects.
While the system supports different product types, including syringes and vials, Recipharm said it is adding a pre-filled syringe (PFS) module to the installation to expand the system’s capabilities to serve both biotech and pharmaceutical customers.
Last year, Recipharm announced an exclusive strategic alliance with Exela Pharma Sciences to bolster its sterile manufacturing capabilities in the U.S. with access to Exela’s facility in Lenoir, North Carolina. Behar said the partnership with the CDMO expands Recipharm’s production of sterile products, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), biologics, and GLP-1s.
“The GLP-1 tsunami continues — it’s not over and we’re very active there,” Behar said. “We are starting to build a footprint with ADCs because we believe that there is a lot coming and we want to be ready.”
