Two CDMOs. Two playbooks.

Siegfried (Switzerland):

- 99% OTIF reliability

- EBITDA margins >22% and compounding upward

- Net debt/EBITDA ~1.5x with CHF 600m firepower

- Selective investments in PFS, spray drying, ophthalmics, obesity/GLP-1, gene therapy

- Walks away from bad deals. Discipline first.

Catalent (U.S., now owned by Novo Holdings):

- Pre-acquisition: FDA setbacks, mid-teen EBITDA margins, leverage stretched >6x

- Now privatized under Novo Holdings, with Novo Nordisk taking three fill-finish sites for GLP-1 drugs

- Novo’s ambition: double Catalent’s size in five years, a bold turnaround story with capital and strategic backing

The contrast is telling.

Siegfried is the independent compounder: steady margins, cash, reliability. Catalent is now the strategic asset: recapitalized, reshaped, and tied to the GLP-1 boom.

👉 In outsourced pharma, one lesson stands: clients don’t buy capacity, they buy certainty. Siegfried sells certainty. Novo is betting billions that Catalent can regain it.

“Good companies boringly do what they say. Bad companies entertain you with fireworks.” – Peter Drucker