Our Take
A CMO is building vertical integration in formulation sciences, not announcing a new technique—continuity and reduced tech-transfer risk are the actual value.
Why it matters
Drug developers lose 6–12 months and millions to tech transfer between discovery and manufacturing when formulation strategy shifts. Symeres is betting that housing discovery, formulation, and CMC expertise under one roof will compress that timeline for sponsors working with poorly soluble compounds, which represent a growing share of modern pipelines.
Do this week
CMC heads: audit your current spray drying provider's discovery-to-clinic integration; if formulation pivots require re-validation at a new site, evaluate whether a single-site vendor cuts your Phase IIa timelines by >2 months.
Symeres Expands Formulation Capabilities In-House
Symeres, a Netherlands-based contract research and development and manufacturing organization (CRDMO), has expanded spray drying operations at its Cranbury, New Jersey CMC development site. The facility now supports both laboratory-scale and pilot-scale spray drying workflows for formulation development activities, including rapid material screening, process optimization, and scalable process development.
The expanded capability is designed to address bioavailability challenges for poorly soluble small-molecule drug candidates, particularly those in Biopharmaceutical Classification System (BCS) Class II and IV categories, highly lipophilic molecules, and targeted therapies requiring enhanced oral exposure. Spray drying generates amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs), a formulation strategy that improves dissolution and oral bioavailability for compounds that would otherwise have low absorption.
Symeres frames the investment as an integration play. By housing spray drying alongside formulation sciences, analytical characterization, solid-state sciences, and process development at a single New Jersey location, the company aims to enable clients to progress from early formulation screening through clinical-ready material without the scientific and logistical friction of external handoffs.
Reducing Tech Transfer and Decision Friction
The core claim is operational continuity. Drug development depends on rapid iteration between discovery chemists, biologists, and CMC experts. When formulation strategy is optimized at one site and then transferred to a manufacturing partner for scale-up, regulatory expectations and equipment constraints often force re-optimization. That cycle adds both time and cost.
Symeres' pitch is that housing these disciplines under one scientific roof reduces technology transfer risk and accelerates decision-making. Henning Steinhagen, CEO of Symeres, states that the integrated model supports "faster progression into clinical development" and "improving development continuity." Paul O'Shea, managing director at Exemplify BioPharma (a Symeres subsidiary), notes that "an increasing proportion of modern small molecule drug candidates require advanced formulation approaches to achieve acceptable bioavailability and clinical performance."
For sponsors developing compounds with absorption challenges, this model addresses a real pain point. Spray drying is well-established technology, not novel, but the operational advantage lies in co-locating the capability with preclinical and CMC teams to compress timelines and reduce rework.
What to Evaluate
If your pipeline includes poorly soluble compounds or molecules that required formulation optimization in late preclinical studies, audit your current CMO's spray drying workflow. The question is not whether spray drying works (it does), but whether your formulation strategy can be refined and scaled at one site without transferring to a secondary manufacturing partner mid-development.
Assess how many months of your Phase IIa timeline are spent in tech transfer and re-validation. If that number is material, a single-site vendor model may offer a tangible advantage. Conversely, if your manufacturing partner already has validated spray drying capability at clinical scale, the marginal benefit may not justify a vendor switch.
Request pilot data from Symeres showing spray drying timelines for compounds similar to yours, from hit-to-clinic formulation candidate, and confirm that analytical and regulatory support are genuinely co-located and responsive, not sequential.