Bora Pharmaceuticals on CDMO Location Strategy, Integration and Growth

Jean-Baptiste Agnus explains how Bora Pharmaceuticals evaluates manufacturing sites and integrates new capabilities across its CDMO network. 

Pharmaceutical manufacturing is where science becomes medicine. It involves making drug substances, turning them into finished products and ensuring every batch meets strict quality and regulatory standards.

For developers, the right manufacturing site can affect how quickly a therapy scales and how reliably it can be supplied. This is why many turn to contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), which help drugmakers develop and produce medicines without building or running every facility themselves.

In the US, domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing has become a federal policy focus. A 2025 executive order directed federal agencies, including the FDA, to streamline reviews for new and expanded manufacturing capacity, site changes and emerging manufacturing technologies.

Bora Pharmaceuticals is expanding its own CDMO network. Jean-Baptiste Agnus, Chief Commercial Officer at Bora Pharmaceuticals, recently spoke with Xtalks about the company’s growth across the US, Canada and Taiwan.

In the interview, Jean-Baptiste discussed how acquisitions, site integration, advanced manufacturing, AI and sustainability are shaping Bora’s long-term strategy.

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Bora’s Manufacturing Network and Expansion Priorities

Bora Pharmaceuticals operates a manufacturing network across North America and Asia. The company’s capabilities span oral solid dose manufacturing, sterile injectables, biologics, ophthalmics and semi-solid dosage forms, including liquids, derms and creams.

“A key component of the strategy is targeted acquisitions, expanding our capabilities and geographic reach,” explained Jean-Baptiste.

Recent examples include Bora’s Maple Grove oral solid dose facility near Minneapolis and its Baltimore site in Maryland, which provides aseptic fill-finish services. Jean-Baptiste also pointed to Bora’s announced plan to acquire MacroGenics’ biologics drug substance site in Maryland.

He said the acquisitions are part of Bora’s push into biologics, US capacity and closer links between drug substance and drug product manufacturing.

Bora’s three main priorities are North American growth, technical differentiation and end-to-end integration. The company has added US capacity through Maple Grove and Baltimore, with the planned Rockville acquisition adding biologics drug substance capabilities.

Bora is working to connect drug substance and drug product services more closely across its network. The model is intended to reduce handoffs across drug substance and drug product services.

How Bora Evaluates Manufacturing Sites

When Bora considers a new site or acquisition, Jean-Baptiste said technical fit comes first. 

“I think first there is clearly an assessment and a need to evaluate the technical fit with our capability roadmap,” he explained.

He pointed to the planned Rockville acquisition as one way Bora is adding biologics capacity. Maple Grove offers another example, with expansion potential and flexibility across multiple manufacturing scales.

Jean-Baptiste said Bora is investing capital into the Maple Grove site, including efforts to strengthen packaging capabilities. That flexibility can support products as they move from development to commercialization.

Infrastructure and scalability are also important, but workforce quality and culture are equally key to how Bora evaluates a site. 

Jean-Baptiste said this includes training, retention and employee engagement, along with community involvement around the site. In manufacturing, these factors help keep production consistent, maintain quality and support products as they move from clinical development to commercial supply.

The Challenge of Integrating Acquired Facilities

Acquisitions can expand a CDMO’s capabilities, but integration is complex. Jean-Baptiste said the work begins with identifying the right site, then continues through technology transfer, process alignment and cultural integration.

“Finding the right company or site to acquire is never easy. It takes time, resources of course, and sometimes a bit of luck,” said Jean-Baptiste.

Different facilities may come with different systems, infrastructure and operating practices. He said technology transfer and process alignment can be difficult when sites have different infrastructure and systems.

Jean-Baptiste also said that different teams bring different experiences and backgrounds. That creates a need to harmonize operations while learning from each site’s strengths. He described onboarding and cultural alignment as both a challenge and an opportunity, especially as Bora continues to grow.

Quality is another major part of integration. “It’s actually your ticket of entry in the CDMO space,” he said.

Bora uses a global quality and compliance network, standardized governance models and program management to support consistency across legacy and newly acquired facilities. Global functions such as manufacturing science and technology (MSAT), project management, sales and business development help support customers locally while maintaining a consistent approach across the network.

Bora uses global quality, compliance and program management functions to support consistency across the network.

The Future of CDMO Location Strategy

Looking ahead, Jean-Baptiste said regionalized supply chains are becoming more important as pharmaceutical companies respond to global demand shifts and supply chain pressures.

Bora’s network across Taiwan, Canada and the US gives the company options to transfer processes and products across multiple sites.

“We do have redundancy, like I said, being glocal, addressing the need of a particular market, offering flexibility and also capacity,” said Jean-Baptiste.

Advanced manufacturing is also shaping site strategy. Jean-Baptiste pointed to continuous manufacturing, automation, process intensification and continuous purification as areas of growing interest. He also noted that AI is becoming more visible across drug discovery, manufacturing operations and quality.

As therapies become more complex, CDMOs may need to keep investing in specialized capabilities, technical expertise and flexible operating models.

Sustainability is also becoming a bigger part of CDMO conversations, especially as large pharma companies set clearer expectations for suppliers. 

“ESG is definitely shaping the industry as well,” he noted.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) expectations are increasingly coming from customers, particularly large pharma companies.

In the future, CDMO site strategy could depend on how well a company can connect geography, technical capabilities, quality systems and customer needs across a wider network.