Evolving with purpose in the CDMO industry

Bora’s 36,000 square metre facility in Zhunan, Taiwan&nbsp

The contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) industry is undergoing structural recalibration, shifting from pure manufacturing to becoming valuable strategic partners, which means that scaling without strategy and growth without responsibility are no longer viable. So, for companies like Bora who are at the intersection of science, speed, and sustainability, the mandate is clear: evolve with the purpose of empowering talents, integrating sustainability goals across operations, and building differentiated technology.

This next wave of complex therapies demands faster, cleaner, and more resilient global supply chains. CDMOs will be judged by how they deploy assets: ethically, efficiently, and with foresight. However, even with this knowledge, industry-wide gaps still remain, with Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) data showing that fewer than 50 percent of registered CDMOs fully consider sustainability across all parts of their operations. And although many CDMOs maintain low Scope 1 and 2 emissions, as expectations continue to rise, product safety, carbon emissions, and governance remain the key areas that are under-integrated and inconsistently managed.

It is also increasingly the case that pharmaceutical clients now demand net-zero-aligned partners who can meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics without compromising supply resilience. Unfortunately, many CDMOs lag in governance and supply chain oversight due to structural realities: high client turnover, fragmented sites, and rapid mergers and acquisition (M&A) cycles, often leading to inconsistent frameworks and weak visibility across suppliers and subsidiaries. To thrive in this new paradigm, it’s important that CDMOs move beyond ad hoc ESG responses and embed accountability as part of the infrastructure.

Can you explain how this industry shift has impacted Bora’s decision-making in terms of ESG initiatives?
At Bora, we have taken deliberate steps to embed ESG into our core operations through three pillars: top-down governance, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and proactive planning. In 2022, Bora’s Board of Directors approved the formation of a Sustainability Committee to strengthen ESG governance at the highest level. This committee defines the company’s sustainability strategies, monitors annual goals, and ensures continual improvement. In 2024, we took it a step further by launching an ESG and Strategic Communications team to coordinate across departments and lead implementation efforts. Monthly internal, cross-functional ESG meetings are now standard practice, to review international benchmarks and trends, and form the foundation for both internal management and external disclosures, while quarterly committee reports track progress and identify gaps on our path to net zero.

In terms of SOPs, we’ve developed internal governance frameworks aligned with global ESG standards, such as EcoVadis, the global standard for resilient, sustainable supply chains. These frameworks ensure that our goals are clearly defined, measurable, and achievable, facilitating performance tracking and external assessments.

And how are you meeting this challenge through sustainable practice?
As the group expands through acquisitions, we are acutely aware of just how complex and demanding this challenge is because we’ve lived it. In just six years, we’ve executed eight mergers and strategic investments. Across production, sales, and R&D, our capabilities are comprehensive, and our challenges abundant. Not only do we have to move quickly to integrate each acquired asset ensuring it holds a defined strategic role within the network, we also have to harmonise operational systems across both newly acquired and existing sites. At the same time, we have had to drive intensive cross-functional collaboration to create our sustainability strategies from nurturing alignment, meticulously validating data, and developing risk management roadmaps, essentially building our sustainability programme while growing the business.

For fast-growing companies, sustainability is the elephant in the room. Its importance is undeniable. Its presence, inescapable. But tackling it head-on, with intent and clarity, is a test few have passed.

That is why we integrate sustainability planning into new sites from day one, including carbon inventory assessments and goal alignment across the entire Bora Group. This effort is inclusive by design, and ensures consistency and long-term ESG integration across our global operations.

As a result of our commitment to sustainability, in 2024, we surpassed $600m in revenue, a 36 percent year-on-year increase, with earnings per share rising 28 percent. However, these milestones reflect more than performance, they validate a strategy rooted in operational excellence and ESG stewardship. Sustainability is our competitive positioning, and we’ve hardwired it into our operating model, tying executive incentives to measurable ESG KPIs, embedding carbon and labour risk into M&A due diligence, and scaling capacity through energy-efficient, automation-ready facilities.

Can you tell us about the energy efficiency measures you’ve implemented at your Taiwan site to help reduce emissions?
Over 50 percent of our CDMO capacity is located in Taiwan, and energy efficiency lies at the core of our decarbonisation strategy. Like many of our Asian CDMO peers, Scope 2 emissions, driven largely by purchased electricity and affected by higher carbon intensity from carbon fuel dependency, remain our dominant source of greenhouse gas emissions. To address this, we’ve prioritised rigorous emissions profiling as the foundation of our climate roadmap, and by enabling real-time digital energy monitoring, equipment modernisation, and site-level efficiency optimisation, our approach turns data into action. As a result of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system upgrades, our Zhunan site in Taiwan has already generated a sustained annual electricity reduction of over six percent and CO₂ emissions by more than three percent.

Zhunan also boasts one of the best oral and modified-release dosage forms using organic solvent-based processes in the region, and over the past three years, Bora has invested several million US dollars in a regenerative thermal oxidation (RTO) system to treat volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This system repeatedly recycles heat from exhaust gases through a high-temperature oxidation process, maintaining thermal stability while significantly reducing fuel consumption. As a result, the site’s processing capacity has more than doubled, laying a solid foundation for continued expansion, and a testament to how infrastructure choices can materially shift carbon outcomes. Over in Canada, our Mississauga site is preparing to align with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) based on the foundation of North America’s relatively low emission factors, which marks a critical milestone in our group-wide net-zero trajectory. We are also currently taking a deep dive into the performance of sites with slower progress to identify targeted resource interventions, and by directing strategic support to underperforming locations, we can ensure that decarbonisation stays equitable and operationally integrated.

What are the most critical lessons you’ve learned from this and how are you scaling them across your global operations?
Throughout our sustainability journey, we’ve gained valuable insights, including the importance of setting aligned, actionable goals and amplifying impact through champion sites. First, and foremost, we don’t pursue sustainability in isolation, but align each site’s goals with internationally recognised frameworks, like EcoVadis, and then break the goals down into specific and measurable sub-targets. This structured approach ensures that sustainability isn’t just aspirational but operationally grounded and trackable.

Lowering the barriers of learning and creating a space where employees can communicate and ask questions freely is Bora’s definition of effective corporate management.

Bora now operates over 10 manufacturing sites globally, and this means that scaling initiatives across diverse locations requires more than just standardisation, it requires leadership. To this end, we’ve adopted a “champion site” model, where high-performing sites, such as those in Mississauga, Canada and Zhunan, Taiwan, serve as mentors for others, with teams actively sharing best practices from carbon reduction and waste minimisation to energy-efficient production using terminology that resonates with pharmaceutical professionals. For example, our Zhunan site has taken the lead in water management initiatives, while the Zhunan team guided our Zhongli site in implementing carbon inventory and reduction planning.

This peer-to-peer approach allows us to localise execution while maintaining global alignment, driving real, scalable impact across the group. Additionally, these sites also demonstrate how we can meet stringent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Quality standards without compromising our green goals.

What is atlasOS and how is it transforming employee engagement and skill enhancement?
People are the foundation of our business and we intend to build a forward-thinking organisation. To this end, we’ve embarked on a bold digital transformation journey to empower our employees by redefining what’s possible in biopharma. Unlike other industries, the operational core of a CDMO business spans across three dimensions on a system and orientation level: project management, manufacturing management (including cost modules in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)), and order management.

Our customers’ product demands are also time-sensitive, which adds to the operational complexity. Therefore, the balance between production costs and inventory management requires either experience or system and is the same for our clients. As a result, institutional knowledge and intelligence must be systematically captured and connected with client systems. This creates a need for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, not only to prevent reliance on memory or fragmented data gathering by individuals, but also to ensure smooth cross-functional coordination.

These AI tools have been embedded into our CDMO operations with a secure, private foundational model development platform for enterprise deployment, and the planned programme is built around a flagship AI operating system, atlasOS. But it’s not about off-the-shelf automation, it’s about building our own intelligent systems that are deeply integrated with our infrastructure, culture, and long-term vision.

How do you ensure atlasOS remains a tool for empowerment rather than just automation?
atlasOS is designed with the principle of support in mind. It doesn’t just automate tasks; it strengthens the individual. It reduces cognitive load, surfaces insights in real time, and adapts to each user’s strengths and style, resulting in workers spending less time fighting systems and more time doing what they’re good at, and getting better at it.

At Bora, we are not building for volume, we are building for what’s next.

The Human Personality Index™ is embedded in the system to make every interaction more intuitive and personal. By learning how a person communicates, makes decisions, and prefers to work, the system essentially creates and becomes an adaptive co-pilot, delivering insights in a way that best fits each individual’s understanding and decision-making style.

Across our deployments of atlasOS, we’ve seen employees report higher satisfaction, not because their jobs got easier, but because their work became more meaningful.

What is the next stage of development for Bora?
In this next phase of the CDMO market, the winners will be those who build not just capacity but capability, and for Bora, 2025 marks a turning point. The second half of the year will see us simultaneously advancing technology differentiation and embedding sustainability deeper into our manufacturing processes, and is a moment to showcase the full force of our R&D and production expertise.

We are approaching this transformation with the same analytical rigor we apply to every strategic decision, that being that our sustainability lens is not merely an overlay but the foundation. One key initiative currently underway is an internal carbon pricing assessment, which is designed to evaluate the feasibility and long-term benefits of transitioning to alternative energy sources across our operations. We are also advancing a two-pronged sustainability initiative; firstly, green chemistry principles are being embedded across development and scale-up processes to minimise solvent waste and enhance overall efficiency, and secondly, facility upgrades are always underway to drive energy efficiency including renewable energy use and heat reclamation.