Bora Pharmaceuticals with CDMO operations facilities in North America and Asia strives to advance Taiwan's biopharmaceutical excellence

Bora Pharmaceuticals (HQ: Taipei, Taiwan), a premier international contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializes in formulation development, clinical and commercial manufacturing and packaging of both small molecules and large molecules for clinical and commercial uses. Recently, Bora held an exclusive exhibition and interactive session at BIO Asia-Taiwan 2024, jointly organized by the global Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the Taiwan Bio Industry Organization (Taiwan BIO) in July 24th to 28th at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center (TaiNEX) showcasing its capabilities and global reach.

Bora Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. has been awarded the 6th “President Innovation Award for Service Innovation” by the Taiwan President’s Office for its extensive contributions towards supporting global pharmaceutical companies with its best-in-class services. With its brand extensions, viz., Bora Pharmaceuticals, Bora Biologics, SunWay Biotech, Bora Health, TWi and Upsher-Smith, the Company delivers high-quality drugs to over 100 markets worldwide from its advanced and cutting-edge operations facilities in North America and Asia. A seamless collaboration between Bora's teams, technologies, and facilities makes it possible to provide therapeutics to patients around the world.

As a leading CDMO service provider for global markets, Bora’s global manufacturing sites meet the local regulatory and commercial requirements with expertise and diligence. Bora’s Chairman and CEO, Bobby Sheng discussed the company's global growth strategies and recent ventures more extensively with Biospectrum Asia, (the official media partner for BIO Asia-Taiwan 2024).

• How would you define Bora's role as a catalyst in fostering Taiwan's biotech and pharmaceutical industries?

As the largest pharma manufacturer in Taiwan, we believe Bora plays a pivotal role as a catalyst in fostering Taiwan’s biotech and pharma industries. With 10 manufacturing facilities globally, Bora has the capacity as well as the capabilities to provide a complete end-to-end CDMO service for both small and large molecules. In fact, Bora is the first Taiwanese company to have the production capacity for oral solid dosage (OSD) configuration, semi solid, liquid, topical medication, sterile injectable and other dosage form all in-house with more than half capacity in North America, and also the first Taiwanese company to have end-to-end service capability from early stage cell line screening, process development, analyzation and development of new biologics, manufacturing, and fill/finish for large molecules.

• How is Bora achieving its dominance in Taiwan’s CDMO arena by leveraging cost-efficient biopharma expertise? How does Bora maintain its competitive edge in biopharma manufacturing and Sterile filling amidst ever evolving market dynamics?

Through strategic acquisitions with operational synergies, cost-efficient operations, diverse manufacturing capabilities, and well-connected global reach, Bora is effectively positioning itself as a dominant player in Taiwan's CDMO arena. These strategies not only enhance its operational efficiency but also ensure that it meets the evolving needs of the biopharmaceutical industry.  

Moreover, through Bora’s well-connected global franchise, it fosters collaboration within the industry by partnering with various stakeholders internationally. These partnerships are vital for knowledge sharing, resource pooling, and driving collective growth in the biotech ecosystem.

Bora’s ability to connect different players in the industry helps create a more robust network that supports innovation and market expansion. Bora’s efforts to expand its market reach internationally also contribute significantly to Taiwan's biotech industry. By exporting pharmaceutical products to over 100 countries, Bora not only enhances its own business prospects but also elevates Taiwan’s reputation on the global stage as a source of high-quality pharmaceutical products.

A customer-centric service with global standards of quality are key elements for Bora to maintain its competitive edge.  

• How is Bora complementing its extensive Sterile manufacturing capabilities for clinical and commercial aseptic fill/finish processes? How do you foresee the potential of the sterile injectable market?

The recently-acquired sterile facility perfectly complements Bora Biologics, which provides tailored development and manufacturing services to biologics developers, from cell-line, process and formulation development to analytical services and clinical cGMP manufacturing. With the commercial scale manufacturing capacity through strategic investment in Tanvex, Bora now is the first Taiwanese company to have end-to-end service capability from early-stage cell line screening, process development, analysis and development of new biologics, manufacturing, and fill/finish for large molecules in the US.  

Bora is effectively positioning itself as a dominant player in Taiwan's CDMO market with strategic acquisitions that create operational synergies, cost-effective operations, and a wide range of manufacturing capabilities.

• How do you define Bora’s expansion strategies to strengthen footprints beyond Asia? How is the company aligning with the market dynamics to leverage on scale and scopes to reach across borders?

In addition to the organic growth to be fostered by engaging more external customers and projects, strategic M&As with a focus to expand either scope or scale are also important. Bora has actively pursued acquisitions to enhance its capabilities and market presence, particularly in North America. These acquisitions enable Bora to integrate new technologies and expertise, allowing for a broader range of services, including sterile injectables.

The acquisition of Upsher-Smith in Minnesota and the recent purchase of Emergent BioSolutions’ sterile manufacturing facility in Maryland are significant steps in expanding its operational capacity and product offerings in the U.S. market.

It is the first sterile injectable, fill/finish manufacturing facility for Bora, which completes not only its dosage form technologies with small molecule injectables but also expands its capabilities of drug products for large molecules.

By leveraging the commercial-scale manufacturing capacity through strategic investment in Tanvex, Bora now is the first Taiwanese company to have end-to-end service capability from early-stage cell line screening, process development, analyzation and development of new biologics, manufacturing, and fill/finish for large molecules in the US.

• What are Bora’s objectives to capitalize on opportunities for market penetration? Can you brief the Company's outlook for investment and expansion for the near future?

The dual engine growth strategy positions Bora in a perfect conducive spot for market penetration as it can leverage the operating efficiency, better cost structure, as well as a lean management to accelerate the expansion. We will continue to capitalize our expertise in strategic M&As and operational track record to achieve the goal in the most efficient manner.  

• How does Bora’s subsidiaries exhibit synergistic and cooperative ties to optimize deliverables across its capabilities?

Our dual-engine growth strategies create significant synergies – For CDMO operation, it’s all about capacity utilization. Because of the large volume of its commercial operation, its CDMO business is guaranteed capacity utilization. For commercial operation, there’s no need to have CAPEX, site management, or capacity concerns. They can have access to Bora’s network of sites and production expertise and do not need to worry about unstable or unreliable external CMO manufacturers. The subsidiaries in the two businesses also create diversification in revenues and stability in growth earnings. When things are not at scale and we are growing fast, the revenues are bumpy. With two business models, they not only help each other get to scale faster, it makes us more diversified while staying within our area of expertise.  

• How do you perceive the opportunities and challenges for fiscal year (FY) 2025?

We are optimistic about FY2025 and also extremely excited about all the opportunities ahead, especially for our US expansion. With the increasing demand of on-shoring and friendshoring, we are in the best position to seize the market potentials with well-connected global footprint. The BioSecure Act is another catalyst for our growth strategies. It’s for sure to see more inquiries from US customers looking for local support/supply chain to mitigate the potential risk and to diversify. The post-merger integration execution would be the key task for us. However, we are confident that the team can achieve all the strategic deliverables led by an experienced leadership team across functions.