CPHI Frankfurt 2025: The Latest Trends Fueling Demand for Manufacturing
For Timothy Compton from Alcami, there are numerous trends driving the surge in demand for U.S. based bio/pharma manufacturing, including the benefits of a greater quality culture and adaptability to batch size requirements.
Bio/pharma manufacturing within the U.S. is experiencing a boost in demand with many companies announcing significant investments in domestic facilities. “Clearly, the largest driver [to this U.S. manufacturing demand] is the geopolitical [situation], with the Biosecure Act coming back into play, potentially, and obviously the trade policies that are unknown, but causing a bit of a stir in the space,” reveals Timothy Compton, Chief Strategy Officer for Alcami.
However, Compton also notes that there has been discussion around reshoring and onshoring within the bio/pharma industry for many years, with the topic coming into sharp focus every few years for U.S. manufacturing. “There are a lot of reasons and rationale to reshore and onshore,” he adds. “One [reason] being quality: certainly, quality culture in the U.S. is bar to none across the rest of the world.”
Further benefits of working together with U.S.-based organizations include geographic closeness, resource planning, and being able to work within similar time zones, Compton explains. “Given all those drivers and the geopolitical shifts, maybe this time around we will see more reshoring and onshoring than in previous years,” he says.
Other than reshoring/onshoring, manufacturing strategies have also shifted as a result of the growth in biologics. “Here at Alcami, we’ve seen batch sizes reduce in size,” remarks Compton. “We more often hear ‘how small of a batch can you sterile fill-filter’, as opposed to ‘how large a batch you can sterile fill-filter’, whereas 10/12 years ago it was always about going bigger.”
In light of this change in demand, Alcami has capacity to manufacture up to 1,000 L batch sizes and can also go down to 1 L and slightly lower batch sizes, Compton reveals.
“Another factor [impacting manufacturing strategies] is the ability to release and characterize the molecules, either drug substance or drug product,” Compton says. “We’ve got a lot of expertise in-house to support that and, right now, we’re actually looking at expanding our capacity for biologics analytical testing in our Raleigh-Durham location.”
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Alcami can be found in Hall 5.1 Booth #D58 at CPHI Frankfurt.
About the Speaker
Timothy Compton is the Chief Strategy Officer for Alcami. Bringing 29 years of industry experience with an extensive background in building and leading commercial operations. Before joining Alcami, Compton was the Chief Commercial Officer at Avid Bioservices, Inc., a contract large molecule bulk drug substance development and manufacturer.
From 2015 to 2019, Timothy was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Avista Pharma, a private equity-backed global provider of contract manufacturing, development, and analytical testing services acquired by Cambrex. Timothy also served in numerous executive leadership roles at AAIPharma Services Corporation, a predecessor company to Alcami, from 2010 to 2014. During the first 10-years of his career, he supported small innovator biotech/pharma start-up companies, advancing drugs from discovery to the clinic. Prior to embarking on a career in commercial operations, his last scientific role was Director of Analytical Development at Kadmus Pharmaceuticals. Timothy holds a B.S. in Microbiology from Washington State University and is an active-duty veteran of the U.S. Army.
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