CordenPharma Names Ex-Hovione Chief Jean-Luc Herbeaux CEO

BASEL, Switzerland: CordenPharma, a contract development and manufacturing organization, or CDMO, has appointed Dr. Jean-Luc Herbeaux chief executive officer, effective Oct. 1, 2026, the company said in a Sept. 15 release distributed by PR Newswire.

Herbeaux succeeds Dr. Michael Quirmbach, who has been chief executive since 2019 and joined the company in 2014. Quirmbach will become a board member and senior advisor and remain actively involved with the business.

From Hovione to CordenPharma

Herbeaux comes from another CDMO. He spent more than four years as CEO of Hovione, an international CDMO, after serving as its chief operating officer. Before that he held several senior roles at Evonik, the German specialty chemicals group.

CDMOs develop and manufacture medicines for biotech and pharmaceutical companies, so his time running Hovione maps closely onto the new job. He said his focus will be to "execute our growth plans with discipline, deepen our partnerships with customers and continue strengthening the capabilities they rely on."

Quirmbach's 12-Year Record in Numbers

The release puts figures on the outgoing CEO's tenure. Over Quirmbach's 12 years with the company, CordenPharma grew from €245 million in annual revenue to more than €1 billion, it said. The same release reports sales of €960 million for the 2025 financial year, and it does not reconcile the two figures.

The company credits Quirmbach with building a focused platform strategy, investing heavily in capabilities and capacity, expanding its global footprint and integrating its sites. "The company is in a strong position for its next phase of development," Quirmbach said, adding that he looks forward to contributing as a board member and senior advisor.

Today CordenPharma employs about 3,500 people across 13 facilities in Europe, North America and Asia. It works with biotech and pharmaceutical companies from early clinical development through commercial manufacturing, and it focuses on peptides, small molecules, lipid excipients, lipid nanoparticles, sterile injectables and oligonucleotides.

AmbioPharm Deal Shapes the Next Phase

Herbeaux takes over after a period of heavy investment, including the recent acquisition of peptide CDMO AmbioPharm and continued spending on development and manufacturing capacity across the network.

He will work with the board and with Astorg, the pan-European private equity firm that acquired CordenPharma in 2022. Astorg has more than €24 billion of assets under management and invests heavily in healthcare. Judith Charpentier, Astorg's co-managing partner and co-head of flagship, said Herbeaux "brings deep CDMO leadership and operational experience." She thanked Quirmbach for "playing a defining role in building the global CDMO it is today." Herbeaux, for his part, said he was excited to "work alongside Astorg at a defining stage of the company's development."

Drug manufacturing capacity has become a competitive field. TradeFlock has reported on Samsung Biologics buying a U.S. production site from GSK, one example of manufacturers adding capacity in the United States.

A Planned Handover, Not a Shake-Up

CordenPharma described the change as a planned leadership transition. The company said Quirmbach will bring "his deep knowledge of the company and industry expertise" and provide strategic guidance from the board.

The handover date matches that of Constellation Cold Logistics, where Abhy Maharaj becomes CEO on Oct. 1, another European company keeping its outgoing chief in an advisory role.

The release gave no new financial targets. The first markers of Herbeaux's approach will be how CordenPharma integrates AmbioPharm and where it spends next on capacity.