The future potential of bioconjugation is strong, with global drug sales for drug conjugates expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) above 20% between 2025 and 2030 1. ADCs will continue to be the main class of revenue drivers during this period. A key growth factor is the generation of new, more stable, site-specific conjugation methods such as our GlycoConnect™ technology, which addresses historical challenges including premature payload release and off-target toxicities.
ADCs represent the largest share of the drug conjugate pipeline, having grown at a CAGR of over 25% between 2020 and 2025 and with approximately 850 molecules currently in development 3. In 2025, two new ADCs received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, further validating the therapeutic and commercial relevance of the modality. Lonza manufactures more than half of the ADCs approved to date. Building on this strong foundation, a wave of commercialization is expected in the coming years, with a CAGR of more than 25% expected in commercial bioconjugate drug products through to 20302.
The global CDMO market for bioconjugation is also experiencing strong momentum. Biopharma companies routinely outsource bioconjugation to established CDMOs to access expertise and experience in increasingly complex and varied technologies. Technology advances have supported a diversity of conjugated sub-modalities (such as ADCs, antibody–oligonucleotide conjugates – AOC – and radionuclide drug conjugates - RDC), new linker-payloads and site-specific conjugation technologies, dual payloads, and bispecific and multi-specific ADCs. Valued at USD 2.18 billion in 2025, the CDMO market for bioconjugation is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 15% to reach approximately USD 4.37 billion by 2030 2.
Amid this rapid growth, the industry continues to face a shortage of available capacity. Demand for outsourcing remains high due to the complexity of bioconjugates supply chains and manufacturing processes, with customers seeking CDMOs that can cover the entire bioconjugates value chain to manage complexity and mitigate risk.
Small molecules play a critical role in the overall pharmaceutical landscape. With small molecules comprising 50% of all molecules in clinical development (approximately 9,000 molecules) 4 the small molecules segment remains an attractive and growing market. In 2025, the outsourced small molecules CDMO market was valued at USD 78 billion and it is estimated to grow at 6% to 7% per year through to 2034 5. Our primary focus is to support the development and manufacture of high value, innovative products, and we expect this segment to grow at the higher end of this range.
Small molecules account for more than 60% 6 of FDA New Molecular Entity (NME) approvals, of which approximately 80% 7 are administered orally. Growth is driven by three main therapeutic areas: oncology, central nervous system (CNS) and endocrine (in particular diabetes and weight loss). Oncology accounts for 30% 8 of small molecule NME approvals by the FDA, and this disease area is estimated to sustain 9% sales revenue growth per year through to 20309. The toxicity of products required to destroy cancer cells means that they are often highly potent, involve complex chemistry, and need high containment manufacturing capabilities.
New therapies, especially specialty drugs for highly specific patient populations, are typically on expedited timelines for approval. To help customers meet these timelines, our quality system and regulatory experts can provide support for filings – a particularly important service for small companies who may not have in-house capabilities.
Roots Analysis: ADC Contract Manufacturing Market (6th Edition).
Citeline 2025
Lonza Analysis
Source: Citeline, pre-clinical excluded.
Source: Small Molecule CDMO Market Size Expand $145.12 Bn by 2034.
Evaluate Pharma 2025 (Antibody drug conjugates).
Source: Citeline, Pharmacircle 2024.
Source: Intern multi-year Analyses of FDA NME Approvals.
Source: Evaluate 2025.
Bioconjugates represent one of the most dynamic and high-growth areas in the pharmaceutical industry, combining advanced science with complex manufacturing to deliver targeted therapies that address unmet medical needs. Developed by attaching therapeutic agents to a biomolecule, bioconjugates can be applied in many fields, such as the development of therapies, vaccines, or diagnostics. These complex and difficult-to-manufacture molecules are outpacing overall market growth, underscoring the strategic importance of bioconjugation as a key growth driver for Lonza.
ADCs and other bioconjugates have the capacity to revolutionize the cancer treatment landscape, but the production process is highly complex. Delivering these therapies requires integration, agility, deep technical expertise, leading and innovative technology, and well-controlled facilities to ensure safety, quality and efficacy. We have a successful track record in manufacturing bioconjugates, from ADCs to non-cytotoxic bioconjugates combining biomolecules with polymers.
While historically centered on ADCs for oncology, conjugation technologies are now being applied to a broader range of therapeutic areas, including muscular disorders, rare diseases, vaccines, and ophthalmology. Advances across the bioconjugation landscape – such as novel payload classes, next‑generation linker technologies, bi‑specific and multi‑specific ADCs, smaller antibody formats, and combination approaches – are expanding possibilities for targeted therapies. Our expertise extends across this spectrum, covering a full range of conjugated sub-modalities and linker-payload technologies.
pre-clinical and clinical small molecules1
commercial small molecules1
Including active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), highly potent API (HPAPI), dosage form and delivery systems and particle engineering.
We develop and produce all ADC components as part of our integrated offering, drawing on expertise across Technology Platforms, including Mammalian, Small Molecules (drug linkers, HPAPI), and parenteral Drug Product. Our offering spans drug substance and drug product manufacture for early clinical and commercial supply, including an early development focus on payload and site-specific linker technology. We are a leader in manufacturing commercially available ADCs and we see significant further growth potential. Since 2006, we have produced more than 1,400 cGMP batches for more than 70 programs. Our production capacity is increasing with new assets coming online, leading to almost 400 batches in 2025.
Our network continues to adapt to the evolving ADC and bioconjugation landscape and the increasing number of commercial molecules in the pipeline. We have expanded our early development capabilities and laboratories, offering expertise and speed in process development and scale-up for a wide range of bioconjugation approaches (including the value chain of cytotoxic ADCs and novel formats with conjugation of oligonucleotides, polysaccharides and cold conjugation for radio-ligand therapies). To deliver on the expected commercialization of bioconjugate drug candidates, we also expanded our offering to include filling lines specifically designed to manufacture pre-clinical, clinical, and commercial batches of highly-potent compounds. This approach provides a seamless end-to-end solution for drug developers, while supporting the industry's goal of commercializing life-saving therapies to benefit patients worldwide.
We continually invest in R&D to anticipate future demand while meeting current market needs for diverse and complex ADCs. Our position at the forefront of bioconjugation innovation was strengthened by the integration of Synaffix and its leading GlycoConnect™ platform into our offering. We accelerate the development of bioconjugates by combining technology access, discovery services and manufacturing capabilities. Through the Lonza Bioconjugation Toolbox, we collaborate with leading technology providers to offer a variety of conjugation technologies, linkers, and payloads to drug developers seeking to de-risk early development.
In this context, Lonza offers a robust, integrated and end-to-end bioconjugates offering across biologics, payload-linkers, bioconjugation and drug products. Our partners can access expertise in all technology innovations, alongside industry-leading cGMP manufacturing across the value chain, to advance their programs and to bring innovative treatments to market efficiently and reliably.
Small Molecules
Alongside our fast-growing Bioconjugates offering, we continue to help customers develop and manufacture innovative small molecules with a focus on drug substance (including payload linkers and complex chemistry) and particle engineering. We have built a leading reputation in this space over the past 40 years, supported by our commitment to science, technology and operational excellence.
Our team of subject matter experts works in close partnership with customers to support design and development throughout the product lifecycle, from pre-clinical stages through commercialization. Entry points in this lifecycle vary from pre-clinical development to late-phase or commercial supply.
Our Drug Substance services relate to the development and manufacture of APIs. With drug substances are becoming increasingly complex, often requiring a greater number of chemical synthesis steps, we help customers to address their development challenges in advancing and commercializing NMEs. Specialized handling and containment are also required for highly potent (HPAPI) or cytotoxic compounds often used in oncology and other indications.
Additionally, most drug substances are poorly soluble and require enabling technologies, such as spray drying, to achieve sufficient bioavailability. We have extensive expertise in addressing these development and manufacturing challenges. We help customers address solubility and bioavailability challenges through our industry-leading expertise and capabilities in spray drying for the production of stable and readily soluble spray-dried dispersions. Our site in Bend (US) utilizes proprietary and phase-appropriate processing equipment and extensive drug delivery experience to help our customers reach their target product profiles.
We supply our customers with drug substance and spray-dried intermediates for pre-clinical and clinical studies, through commercial volumes. Our current portfolio includes more than 200 pre-clinical and clinical programs and more than 125 commercial programs, delivered by a global asset network capable of supplying a range of volumes to meet both clinical and commercial demands. We continue to build on our existing capabilities in complex chemistry, such as the development and application of AI-enabled and model-based tools for route scouting, solid form characterization and absorption/bioavailability prediction. We continue to expand our capabilities and capacity for the development and manufacture of highly potent small molecules, especially as payloads for ADCs and other bioconjugate drug products. Combined with linker technologies, these payloads represent a particularly attractive market segment within the HPAPI category.
In 2025, Advanced Synthesis delivered an exceptional performance, driven by successful growth project ramp-ups and the signing of a large multi-year small molecules commercial drug substance supply agreement. Strong operational performance was supported by our portfolio of complex small molecules, including highly-potent APIs. The Business Platform continued to experience strong commercial demand for its Bioconjugates and Small Molecules offerings, underlining its strategic importance and sustained market momentum.
We made targeted portfolio adjustments in 2025 to sharpen our focus on areas with the highest potential for impact and growth within the Business Platform. Key actions included integrating Synaffix’s proprietary bioconjugation technologies and growing clinical pipeline into Advanced Synthesis (previously part of Integrated Biologics), which strengthens our innovation capabilities and strategic growth trajectory. We also transferred our solid dosage form offering in Tampa (US) to Capsules & Health Ingredients, and signed an agreement for the divestiture of our micronization operations in Monteggio (CH). This network optimization strategy positions Advanced Synthesis to capture high-growth opportunities that align with our long-term strategic objectives.
Comparison vs. Prior Year
Sales (CHF)
CORE EBITDA (CHF)
CORE EBITDA Margin
Sales growth, expressed as a percentage (%), are at constant exchange rate (CER).
Our customer‑dedicated drug linker manufacturing plant in Visp (CH) successfully commenced operations in Q1 2025 and ramp-up activities are progressing as planned. We made continued progress across our commercial bioconjugation investment projects as planned. Construction activities for the additional multipurpose bioconjugation suites in Visp (CH) are advancing according to schedule, supporting
the planned start up of this new commercial capacity from 2028. In parallel, the customer dedicated large scale bioconjugation asset at Lonza’s Ibex® Dedicate Biopark has successfully completed main commissioning, qualification and validation activities and has further advanced operational readiness, remaining on track to begin manufacturing operations in 2026.
Significant productivity gains were achieved across various small molecules and bioconjugation assets in 2025, driven by throughput improvements through cycle time reduction and yield optimization. These efforts also reduce starting material and energy consumption, positively supporting our sustainability objectives. We also progressed digitalization initiatives to enhance efficiency and strengthen “rightfirst-time” performance.
Head of Advanced Synthesis
In 2025, we maintained strong business momentum while aligning our portfolio to our strategic focus areas. We successfully ramped-up operations at our drug linker manufacturing plant and improved productivity at our bioconjugation suites in Visp, underlining our commitment to create long-term value for our customers. Additionally, we signed a large multi-year commercial supply agreement in our Small Molecules business, and made productivity gains across the Business Platform as part of our network optimization strategy.
We launched the new Design2Optimize™ platform to streamline the development of small molecule APIs, designed to help customers accelerate development by enhancing chemical processes with fewer experiments
than traditional statistical methods. We also joined the Centre for Continuous Manufacturing and Advanced Crystallisation (CMAC) to enhance our service offering in particle technologies and drug product development, strengthen CMC processes and ensure the effective application of research outcomes into our CDMO operations.
We entered into a collaboration agreement with Ethris to develop spray-dried mRNA vaccines targeting respiratory diseases, with an initial focus on developing and manufacturing a first candidate vaccine against influenza for nasal delivery. Finally, we announced a collaboration with Iconovo to develop spray-dried intranasal formulations for a biologic to be delivered via Iconovo’s ICOone Nasal® device. We develop the formulations at our site in Bend (US), focusing on achieving optimal particle size, stability, and compatibility with the device, while retaining the biological activity.
The ADC field has experienced strong growth in recent years, driven by remarkable clinical successes. The concept of ADCs has evolved to include innovative formats with improved architecture and performance. These advancements include novel payloads, cutting-edge linker technologies, improved conjugation methods, and new antibodies. Lonza is at the heart of this transformation, offering industry-leading capabilities ranging from R&D drug linker technologies, process development and manufacturing as well as integrated offerings enabling the progression of both established and novel ADC formats into the clinic.
Discover More
