Bildnachweis: Dr. Jinling Chen, WuXi AppTec.
At WuXi AppTec’s Couvet site in Switzerland, an integrated CRDMO approach is being designed to accelerate the path from discovery to commercial manufacturing. Dr Jinling Chen explains how combining research, development, and manufacturing helps life sciences companies bring innovative medicines to patients more swiftly and more reliably.
VC Magazin: Life sciences involve laboratory and organisational costs that a start-up must cover in its early stages. CDMOs, which focus on development and manufacturing, as well as CROs specialising in research, are a strong alternative. In your CRDMO model, you combine both. What exactly does CRDMO deliver?
Chen: Pharmaceutical development and manufacturing are closely related, and the success of manufacturing strongly depends on the robustness of the development process. The CRDMO model integrates research (R), development (D), and manufacturing (M), ensuring that choices made during discovery are informed by development feasibility, and that manufacturing considerations are taken into account during the development phase. This approach helps ensure not only successful filing for approval but also a robust manufacturing process. This leads to a smooth transition to the manufacturing stage and reliable commercial supply of the material. Ultimately, the CRDMO model saves time, reduces costs, and mitigates risks by tightly linking development and manufacturing.
VC Magazin: What differentiates your CRDMO model from other providers, and
why is it particularly attractive for smaller companies?
Chen: Our CRDMO stands out because it integrates the entire process from drug discovery, development, and manufacturing into one organisation, helping eliminate handoffs, while ensuring unwavering quality. Unlike other providers that may start with development (D) and then move to manufacturing (M) or vice versa, we have grown these capabilities together organically. This means we can offer comprehensive services, including drug substance production, drug product manufacturing, and analytical testing, for a wide range of products from small molecules to oligo, peptides, and conjugates. Additionally, our global operations span from Asia to Europe and North America, allowing us to provide efficient and high-quality services to our customers and partners worldwide. This all-in-one approach is particularly attractive for smaller companies as it reduces complexity, saves time, and lowers costs.
VC Magazin: Your site in Couvet, Switzerland, plays an important role for your CRDMO platform. Who belongs to your customer base in Switzerland, and what distinguishes this location?
Chen: Our Couvet site serves a global customer base. We have clients from North America, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world. So, it’s not just European customers; the medicines enabled by us are intended for global use. Having the site in Central Europe, specifically in Switzerland, is advantageous because it allows us to attract top talent in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, the location enables us to maintain high-quality systems and top-notch equipment. This helps us deliver the best quality to our customers.
VC Magazin: What advantages do European manufacturing facilities offer for the life sciences industry and its ecosystem?
Chen: The dedication of Europe’s innovation hubs to accelerate translation of early-stage ideas into patient therapies has been well demonstrated in terms of the excellent basic research, infrastructure, and dynamic investments. Our European manufacturing facilities are routinely inspected by regulatory authorities. These inspections provide sponsors with greater confidence in late-stage process development, manufacturing, and supply, which is a significant advantage. Additionally, Europe’s geographic location allows for easy access to medicines at both clinical and commercial stages, further enhancing its potential in advancing the life sciences industry and its ecosystem.
VC Magazin: What challenges do the start-ups you collaborate with report, and how do you address them?
Chen: Start-ups typically face several challenges. Firstly, there are the limited resources; they often have constrained financial resources and a small team. Secondly, there’s often a lack of experience in all aspects of development. Although the complexity of their projects does not decrease just because the team is small. Many modern molecules have very complex structures, which can lead to issues such as poor solubility, permeability, and low bioavailability in human bodies. To address these challenges, we leverage our extensive expertise and capacity. WuXi AppTec handles more than 430,000 compounds each year with more than 3,400 molecules in our small molecule CDMO pipeline. We’ve built robust capabilities to tackle a wide range of issues efficiently. We’ve also made significant investments in expanding our capabilities and capacities to manage complex projects effectively. Our sites are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, automated systems,
and quality systems, which are crucial for late-stage commercial manufacturing. Additionally, we use advanced technical tools to address specific challenges related to large complex molecules. All these investments and capabilities enable us to help our clients advance their compounds quickly into clinical studies and subsequent stages of development.
VC Magazin: From your perspective, what added value does CRDMO ultimately bring for the end customer – the patient?
Chen: The CRDMO model is about helping innovative medicines reach patients faster while maintaining the highest standards of quality. This means enabling better treatment options for patients. That is central to both the mission of our CRDMO model and the vision of WuXi AppTec: ‘every drug can be made, and every disease can be treated’.
VC Magazin: How does WuXi AppTec handle intellectual property and data privacy at the Couvet site to ensure client confidentiality and regulatory compliance?
Chen: Intellectual property (IP) protection is fundamental to our operations and to our customers’ success. We safeguard customers’ IP using numerous tools and methods, fostering trust with our valued partners – not just at the Couvet site, but across the entire
WuXi AppTec network. From day one, all teams are trained on IP protection. We adhere rigorously to global standards, have zero tolerance for non‐compliance, and require that every site employ uniform best practices to ensure consistency and trust.
VC Magazin: On 6 May 2026, you will host an ‘Open House’ in Couvet as part of the Swiss Biotech Days. What can participants look forward to?
Chen: First of all, participants will have the chance to meet our highly professional teams. They will see our state-of-the-art facility and the design of our pharmaceutical manufacturing site. They will also get to see our oral solid manufacturing equipment used
for tablet and capsule packaging, among other things. Additionally, attendees will gain a better understanding of our quality systems. There’s a lot to see, and I believe visitors will be impressed by the beauty of the site. They’ll also see how much we care about the environment, the surroundings, and our energy practices. So, there will be many good things to experience at the site.
VC Magazin: Thank you very much.
About the interview partner:
Jinling Chen, PH.D., is Senior Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing at WuXi AppTec. Over 20 years of experience in formulation and process development planning and strategy, drug delivery technologies, formulation, drug product process development and manufacturing, CMC regulatory submission. Holds more than 20 globally recognized patents. Formerly worked at Zeneca, BSM, Lexicon. Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Monash University in Australia.
