An Interview from CPHI

Rizwan Chaudhrey speaks with Dirk Lange

 At this year’s CPHI Frankfurt, the energy was undeniable. On the final morning of the show, interviewer Rizwan Chaudhrey sat down with Dirk Lange, CEO of Pyramid Pharma Services, to capture a snapshot of that momentum.

If you were not able to attend CPHI, the conference was filled with conversations highlighting industry trends. Throughout the event, several important themes bubbled to the top. Themes included, the growing emphasis on sustainability in manufacturing, the acceleration of digitalization for supply chain transparency, and the increasing demand for innovative drug delivery solutions. These insights reflect where the market is heading and how companies are adapting to meet evolving regulatory and patient needs.

For Pyramid Pharma Services specifically, the conference was filled with customer meetings, industry conversations, and nonstop booth traffic, Dirk shared insights into who Pyramid Pharma Services is, what they’ve been discussing with customers this week, and where the company is headed next. Their conversation spans the growing demand for dual sourcing, the evolution of Pyramid’s end-to-end sterile fill-finish capabilities, and the deep partnership approach that continues to define the company after nearly four decades of growth.

Below is the full interview transcript from the show floor at CPHI Frankfurt.

Rizwan Chaudhrey:

Hi everybody. We're at CPHI Frankfurt. It's the morning of day three, so we're coming to the end of the show, but I'm delighted to be catching up with Dirk Lange, who is the CEO of Pyramid Pharma Services, and we're eager to learn more about Pyramid Pharma Services and what they've been talking to customers about this week at the show. So, Dirk, first, it's lovely to meet you. How are you doing? How has the show gone so far for you?

Dirk Lange, CEO, Pyramid Pharma Services:

Great, thanks. It's great to meet you. It's an incredible show. We have had three packed days with pre-scheduled meetings and incredible conversations. A lot of traffic at the booth. Just a real good energy and great catching up with industry friends and making new connections. So yeah, very good energy here.

Rizwan Chaudhrey:

Brilliant. Now, in terms of the company, for people who are not familiar with Pyramid Pharma Services, who are you and what do you do?

Dirk Lange:

Pyramid Pharma Services is a fully integrated drug product, CDMO. So we offer sterile fill-finish services in vials, liquid lyo prefilled syringes and cartridges and end to end really from development through clinical manufacturing to commercial supply as well. And also further downstream, we do offer device assembly services, labeling and packaging, both clinical and commercial.

Rizwan Chaudhrey:

Week at CPHI, is there anything in particular you've been looking to showcase or focus on with customers and booth visitors?

Dirk Lange:

Yes, it seems like most of the conversations focused on dual sourcing. I don't want to say necessarily tech transfer and moving products, but dual sourcing seems to be a real big mega trend, certainly fueled by the uncertainty around geopolitical questions and so forth. But I think it makes people consider how robust is my supply chain, really? How much exposure do I have and how do I respond to this? So a lot of the questions were, should I set up my DP footprint in the US and who's a good provider there, who's a good partner really because we see ourselves as partners for our clients and was really exciting to explore what their options are and how we could support.

Rizwan Chaudhrey:

Now as I've got you here and you are the CEO, I thought I'd ask you one extra question actually, I don't normally ask. What's your vision for the company going forward? How do you see the company progressing in the future?

Dirk Lange:

We see ourselves as an enabler to the pharmaceutical industry. We solve whatever problems they encounter. What that really means for us is the company started almost 40 years ago as an analytical contract lab. And then based on the demand and requests from clients, it evolved into formulation development, process development, lyo cycle development, full-blown GMP manufacturing 25 years ago and then we went into clinical manufacturing and then there was a pull from clients to say, could you also do the commercial manufacturing for us? So then we expanded into commercial manufacturing 10 years ago. Now the big trend is self-injections and home injections. So a lot of products are going subcutaneous into an autoinjector or a pen. The big demand is can you fill the prefilled syringe, put it in an autoinjector, do the labeling pack, and so forth. That's really how the company has evolved over four decades now. We ask, “what is the demand and what are the problems that we can solve for our clients?” and we continue down that journey.

Rizwan Chaudhrey:

And that's partially onto my last question, which is, what makes you as a business unique and why should people work with you?

Dirk Lange:

What's quite unique about Pyramid is really the partnership approach. We try to find partners that we can work with for decades. Some of our client relationships go back two decades. We've been manufacturing for some of our clients for almost 20 years, and I think that makes us unique. What we do is secondary because that has evolved and will continue to evolve. It is how do we engage with our clients that matters.

How do we create the flexibility that they need, let it be production, scheduling, onboarding of new programs and so forth? I would say partnership is the main differentiator. Certainly we have a full set of capabilities, vial cartridges, syringes, autoinjectors, but to me that is not what makes Pyramid Pharma Services, what makes us a really, really special company is the approach we take in how we engage with our clients.

If you would prefer to watch this on YouTube, you can view the video here.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does Pyramid Pharma Services do?
   Pyramid is a full-service sterile fill-finish CDMO offering development, clinical manufacturing, commercial supply, and device assembly for vials, syringes, cartridges, and lyophilized products.

2. Why is dual sourcing a major focus for pharma companies?
   Dual sourcing strengthens supply-chain resilience. With geopolitical uncertainty, many companies are seeking a reliable U.S.-based CDMO partner to reduce risk and ensure continuity.

3. What makes Pyramid Pharma Services unique?
   Pyramid stands out for its long-term partnership approach, flexible program support, and evolving capabilities, including strong expertise in prefilled syringes and autoinjector-ready drug products.

About Pyramid Pharma Services

As a full-service CDMO, we have the technical, regulatory and scientific expertise to flexibly meet our pharma and biotech partners’ needs at every point in their drug development and fulfillment process. With a high degree of specialty in parenteral biologics, we offer the breadth of services needed to progress drugs throughout the development and distribution lifecycle.