CDMO ladder 1 of 4 · the word

What is a CDMO

A company that makes medicines for other companies — the ones that own the drug but not the factory.
Paid per kilo or per project, never per prescription. The customer’s brand, the CDMO’s plant.
The D is the difference. A CMO runs a process it is given; a CDMO develops the process first.
The customer’s fortunes are the CDMO’s: a drug that wins fills a plant, a patent that expires empties one.

A drug’s journey — and where a CDMO can step in

ResearchDiscovery and development work before there is a drug

IntermediatesThe chemistry that comes before the active ingredient

APIThe active ingredient, made in bulk

DoseAPI turned into a pill, a vial, an injection

Own productsSold under its own name — not contract work, but some CDMOs do both

A CDMO can work in one stage or several. Which stages each of India’s listed CDMOs works on is the next level of this ladder.

Four words you will meet

CMO	Manufacturing only. The older, thinner model.
CRO	Research for a fee — from lab chemistry to running clinical trials — with no factory. The R in CRDMO.
CRDMO	Research added at the front. Syngene and Anthem call themselves this.
China +1	Customers keeping a second supplier outside China. The reason India’s CDMOs are being watched.

CDMO vs CMO vs CRO

	CRO	CMO	CDMO
Does	Research — lab chemistry to clinical trials	Makes a drug by a process it is handed	Works out the process, then makes the drug
Factory	No	Yes	Yes
Paid	Per project, for time and people	Per kilo or per batch	Development fees first, then per kilo
Customer ties	Project by project	Replaceable, though a move needs the regulator’s approval	Harder to replace — it developed the process, and its plant is named in the drug’s approval

Eleven listed Indian CDMOs, combined revenue, ₹ crore

29kFY21

34kFY22

34kFY23

38kFY24

43kFY25

48kFY26

From ₹28,953 crore in FY21 to ₹47,502 crore in FY26 — 10% a year, compounded. Annual accounts of the companies on this site; only years all of them report.

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One level deeperCDMO stocks in India, side by side — who does what, and how big

Not advice. Definitions are ours; figures are the companies’ own, from their annual accounts.

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What is a CDMO

What is a CDMO

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