U.S. Pharmaceutical CDMO Market: The Rise of Specialty Pharma

The U.S. pharmaceutical CDMO market size accounted for USD 40,540 million in 2024 and is predicted to touch around USD 84,330 million by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2025 to 2034.

U.S. Pharmaceutical CDMO Market Report Highlights

• The oncology application segment dominated the U.S. pharmaceutical CDMO market with the highest revenue share in 2024 and is expected to grow fastest during the forecast period.
• The infectious disease application segment is anticipated to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period.
• The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) product segment led the U.S. pharmaceutical CDMO market with the largest revenue share in 2024.
• The drug product segment is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period.
• The commercial workflow segment led the U.S. pharmaceutical CDMO market with the highest revenue share in 2024.
• The clinical workflow segment is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period.

The U.S. pharmaceutical CDMO market refers to the production, distribution, and use of the pharmaceutical CDMO in which CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) is a company that provides comprehensive services from drug development through drug manufacturing for pharmaceutical and biotech firms. Pharmaceutical companies outsource drug manufacturing to CDMOs or CMOs because they need access to capacity or technological capabilities beyond what they have in-house and mitigate risk by outsourcing to a secondary supplier.

A contract development and manufacturing organization (or CDMO) provides end-to-end, fully integrated drug development and manufacturing solutions and services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical CDMO offers integrated services, including drug development, testing, and manufacturing. CDMOs can provide the necessary production capacity to meet market demand. CDMOs can assist in managing the costs associated with compliance by spreading them across multiple clients, making it more affordable for individual pharmaceutical companies. By consolidating research and development with manufacturing processes, CDMOs can reduce complexities involved in product lifecycle management, ensuring smoother transitions from development to production.

The rising adoption of outsourcing services is driving the growth of the U.S. pharmaceutical CDMO market. Outsourcing is transferring a portion of work to outside a supplier to reduce costs. The main types of outsourcing in pharma include research and development, clinical trials, packaging, manufacturing, and sales/marketing. Outsourcing can help you leverage knowledge and skills along with your complete supply chain. Outsourcing can help to make businesses more flexible and agile, able to adapt to changing market conditions and challenges while providing cost savings and service level improvements. Outsourcing is a formal arrangement by which a healthcare organization contracts with an outside company to obtain selected pharmaceutical services or comprehensive management of the organization’s pharmacy.

The rising R&D activities in the pharmaceutical industry are driving the growth of the U.S. pharmaceutical CDMO market. Pharmacists provide an invaluable interface in this process by liaising with scientists and clinicians across the development arena. During the discovery

research phase of the development of a medicine, pharmacists will work with other scientists to develop and select drug compounds that may be valuable as medicines. By accelerating timelines, reducing costs, and enhancing the precision of drug development, these advancements promise to enhance and transform the pharmaceutical industry. Research and development (R&D) covers the initial search for a molecule to treat the disease through to having a product ready to market.

The pharma R&D process is simply the series of activities targeted to reach the goal of discovering and delivering new medical drugs, devices, or therapies to market. Generally, R&D in the pharma industry involves preclinical research and the discovery of advanced drugs. They offer the potential to bring life-saving treatments to patients more efficiently and quickly, inspiring a new era of healthcare.

Rising demand for generic drugs contributes to the growth of the U.S. pharmaceutical CDMO market. Generic drugs tend to cost less than their brand-name counterparts because they do not have to repeat clinical (human) and animal studies that were required of the brand-name medicines to demonstrate safety and effectiveness. Generics offer many benefits, including reducing the risk of errors, as each drug has only one international chemical name rather than many brand names, and generally, reducing the cost of prescribing. Generic drug benefits also include staying the course with generics; patients can easily find a generic equivalent, generic drugs help keep costs down in the U.S. health care system, patients can save serious money with generic drugs, and generic drugs can be just as effective as their brand name.