Approximately half the drugs in the pharmaceutical pipeline now are biologics, a statistic that reflects the drug industry’s shift in emphasis over the past two decades from small to large molecules. In that time, drug firms outsourced much of their small-molecule research, development, and manufacturing operations and invested heavily in biologics. The small-molecule drug services sector, meanwhile, consolidated to create a business populated by what is known as contract development and manufacturing organizations, or CDMOs. Now, a similar evolution is afoot in the contract research, development, and manufacturing of biologic drugs. Rapidly increasing demand for biologic drug services has prompted a slew of mergers and acquisitions in which companies specializing in process development and manufacturing have bulked up by acquiring drug research assets, and vice versa. As they did in the small-molecule world, one-stop-shop CDMOs are emerging in biologics. What’s different, observers say, is that this time...