Vetter GmbH

Globally operating CDMO committed to strengthening Germany as a research and production location Association grants Vetter extraordinary membership vfa recognizes the importance of pharmaceutical service providers in drug development and production Vetter serves on key vfa committees Ravensburg, January 17, 2024: Vetter, a leading globally operating contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), has joined the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (vfa) as an associate member. With this membership, the vfa recognizes the significant role that the pharmaceutical service provider plays in the field of complex injectable drugs. Vetter supports research-based pharmaceutical companies worldwide in successfully developing, launching, and establishing their products on the market through the joint development of patient-friendly drug-delivery systems, innovative and flexible filling processes, and packaging solutions. Currently at 48 member companies, the vfa represents more than two thirds of the entire German pharmaceutical market. The companies employ around 94,000 people in Germany. More than 20,000 of them work in the research and development of medicinal products. Managing Director Peter Soelkner stated, "It is a great recognition for us that the vfa has invited us to participate. The association is the most important platform for pharmaceutical companies active in Germany to promote and support the strategic development of the industry and further establish Germany as an important business location. We can now also contribute our perspective here. As a globally operating CDMO, we play an important role as a partner for small and large companies in the industry." Aside from its headquarters and several sites for development, aseptic production and packaging in Germany, Vetter also operates dedicated clinical production sites in Austria and the US, along with sales offices in Japan, Singapore, South Korea and China. Through its international presence, Vetter provides state-of-the-art support from clinical development through large-scale production as well as assembly and packaging for complex injectable drug products in the global market supply. Han Steutel, President of the vfa said, "The production of injectable drugs is an indispensable part of the innovative pharmaceutical and biotech industries. We are delighted that Vetter, a global leader in this field, is a member of the vfa." Active involvement in committee work The association's work is carried out by committees and working groups focusing on specific topics. Managing Director Peter Soelkner will represent Vetter in the Committee for Economic and Business Location Policy. Dr. Claus Feussner, Senior Vice President Development Service, has been appointed to the Research and Development Committee. Vetter experts will also collaborate in the expert groups regulatory affairs, manufacturing, innovation and communication. By joining the vfa, Vetter becomes a member of organizations such as the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The EFPIA plays a key role in fostering cooperation and synergy among member countries to strengthen and develop research and production capabilities at EU level. © Vetter Pharma International GmbH: Vetter is a strong partner for research-based pharma and biotech companies in the field of the development, manufacturing and packaging of complex injectable drugs. Find the Vetter press kit and more background information here. About Vetter Vetter is a leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) with headquarters in Ravensburg, Germany, and production facilities in Germany, Austria, and the US. As a global player, the pharmaceutical service provider is also present with its own sales locations in the Asia-Pacific markets of Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore. Around the world, small and large renowned pharma and biotech companies rely on the decades of experience, high quality, modern technologies, reliability, and commitment of more than 6,300 employees. In close partnership with its customers, the Vetter team supplies patients all over the world with medicines, many of which are vital. The CDMO provides support from drug product development through clinical and commercial filling to a wide range of assembly and packaging services for vials, syringes, and cartridges. With innovative solutions, Vetter develops prefilled drug-delivery systems together with its customers to continuously improve patient safety, comfort, and compliance. The company is an industry pioneer in sustainability and a socially and ethically responsible corporate citizen. The CDMO is a member of the UN Global Compact and Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) and received platinum status in the renowned EcoVadis ranking. Multiple awards such as the CDMO Leadership Awards, Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation award or the recognition as Best Managed Company emphasize Vetter’s commitment to sustainable business. Founded in Ravensburg in 1950, the company remains family-owned to this day. Learn more at . Contact Vetter Pharma International GmbH Markus Kirchner Corporate Spokesperson / Media Relations Eywiesenstrasse 5 88212 Ravensburg Germany Phone: +49 (0)751-3700-3729 E-mail: PRnews@vetter-pharma.com

Elevate commitment to CO2 accounting in accordance with globally recognized greenhouse gas protocol Achieved ecovadis Platinum status: Vetter is among the one percent most sustainable companies worldwide Sustainability goals are backed up with concrete measures of success Ravensburg, December 05, 2023: Vetter, a leading globally operating Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), has joined the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) membership group as of November 2023. The goal of the companies in the SBTi is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, thus representing the strictest climate protection targets for companies worldwide. As a result, Vetter has committed to the 1.5 degrees of global warming target. To this end, the CDMO has presented a sustainability strategy with concrete steps to take through 2030, in which the effects of the planned dynamic growth related to CO2 emissions are already factored in. With the commissioning of the new photovoltaic plant and the conversion of another existing combined heat and power plant to biogas, both at its Ravensburg Center for Visual Inspection and Logistics, Vetter is already taking important steps towards Net Zero in 2023. According to Henryk Badack, Senior Vice President Technical Service and Internal Project Management, being responsible for the company's global sustainability activities, "Many measures that other companies are only now implementing, such as 100 percent green electricity, are already part of our daily routine. We invest continuously to make energy-intensive production processes more efficient and to gradually switch to climate-friendly forms of energy. Joining the SBTi is therefore the logical next step for us: we are making it even more transparent for our customers and partners that we want to achieve Net Zero and how we intend to do it.” By joining the SBTi, the company is not only committing itself to ambitious climate targets. It is taking the added step of implementing uniform monitoring and reporting standards for CO2-relevant processes according to the specifications of the international Green House Gas (GHG) Protocol. In its current sustainability report, Vetter has already recorded part of its Scope 3 emissions and reported the CO2 balance according to the GHG protocol. Henryk Badack added, "By joining SBTi, we commit ourselves to annual reporting and their validation. In this way, we make our measures to reduce our carbon footprint even more transparent and traceable while contributing to fully sustainable supply chains." Investing in climate-friendly energy generation Pharmaceutical production is energy-intensive, and the conversion to renewable energies is correspondingly complex. Vetter has been investing in the development and expansion of the local infrastructure for sustainable energy generation over the past several years. In 2023, the company invested approximately one million euros in the installation of a large photovoltaic (PV) system on the roofs of its state-of-the-art warehouse in Ravensburg, as well as a six-figure euro investment in the conversion of a natural gas heat and power plant. Since then, only biogas has been used. The PV plant will generate around 700,000 kWh of renewable energy per year. This corresponds to about 10 percent of the energy consumption at the site. This results in a reduction of about 330 tons of CO2 per year, while the conversion to biogas will save about 1,000 tons of CO2 per year. ecovadis Platinum Status Vetter is a leader among CDMOs in the field of sustainability. In the globally recognized ecovadis ranking, the CDMO recently received Platinum status and is thus among the top one percent of the most sustainable companies. Among the decisive factors for the improvement from Gold to Platinum status were the company's further developed initiatives for sustainable supply chains – spanning from measures for supplier assessment to risk analyses in the area of environment and human rights. Vetter's role as an active member of the UN Global Compact (UNGC) as well as its continuous sustainability reporting also paid off in receiving the excellent rating. Steadfast Commitment Recently, the company was once again awarded the Top Climate Commitment 2024 seal by FOCUS Magazine, which puts Vetter on the recommendation list for companies that are particularly ambitious in their commitment to the climate. In November, the CDMO also received the Environmental Management Award 2023 in the category "Best Strategy for Sustainable Corporate Development". This prize is awarded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection. Vetter convinced the jury with its integrated management system, which forms a sound basis for holistic sustainability management and encompasses both the ecological and economic as well as the social pillars in the company. About SBTi The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) is a global organization that enables companies to set ambitious climate targets. These are based on the current results of climate research. The initiative focuses on putting companies worldwide on track to halve their emissions by 2030 and become climate neutral by 2050. SBTi is a joint initiative of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). You can download the current Vetter sustainability report here. © Vetter Pharma International GmbH: Approximately 1,700 photovoltaic modules have recently been producing sustainable energy on almost 6,500 square meters of roof surface. The Vetter press kit and additional background information are available in the press area. About Vetter Vetter is a leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) with headquarters in Ravensburg, Germany, and production facilities in Germany, Austria, and the U.S. As a global player, the pharmaceutical service provider is also present with its own sales locations in the Asia-Pacific markets of Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore. Around the world, small and large renowned pharma and biotech companies rely on the decades of experience, high quality, modern technologies, reliability, and commitment of more than 6,000 employees. In close partnership with its customers, the Vetter team supplies patients all over the world with medicines, many of which are vital. The CDMO provides support from drug product development through clinical and commercial filling to a wide range of assembly and packaging services for vials, syringes, and cartridges. With innovative solutions, Vetter develops prefilled drug-delivery systems together with its customers to continuously improve patient safety, comfort, and compliance. The company is a pioneer in the industry when it comes to sustainability, and acts as a socially and ethically responsible corporate citizen. The CDMO is a member of the UN Global Compact, has received multiple CDMO Leadership Awards and was awarded several times as Best Managed Company. Founded in Ravensburg in 1950, the company remains family-owned to this day. Learn more at . Contact Vetter Pharma International GmbH Markus Kirchner Corporate Spokesperson / Media Relations Eywiesenstrasse 5 88212 Ravensburg Germany Phone: +49 (0)751-3700-3729 E-mail: PRnews@vetter-pharma.com

We met at CPHI in Barcelona to discuss how Vetter had coped through the pandemic and what the future looked like. Press has more than 25 years of experience in product and supply chain management for several industry-leading enterprises but has been with Vetter since 2009. Vetter is more than 70 years old and remains family-owned. In 1945, honorary senator and pharmacist Helmut Vetter founded the Chemisch-Pharmazeutische Laboratorium Ravensburg GmBH which included a lab, a school for lab technicians, and a drug production facility. ‘It started there and after some years the family started with these outsourcing services – mainly in the syringe business and in the 1980s which was the basis for the business we do today,’ explains Press, ‘the pharmacy still exists in its original place and still has the name Vetter Pharmacy. ‘We got our first FDA approvals in the 80s and started investing in new filling lines, to build what is now our CMO.’ Press explained the company is seeing a growing market which they are preparing for. ‘We see patients out there getting older and older. They have more access to medicine. This results in more injectable demand. We have intensive partnerships with our customers. ‘It's a long-lasting and long-term relationship that we have had over decades. Our clients have asked us for more capacity.’ He said that besides the high-level quality of products they are putting out, the company must have the security of supply at any time. ‘Our patients rely on us to get our products to them, and this is a big task for us, to organize ourselves so that it is possible at any time. Also, during COVID-19 times there was a crisis all over the world, and again it was our task, to make sure we could supply our products. This is why we have now invested further in Germany.’ googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('text-ad1'); }); Press said that from the demand perspective, nothing changed during the pandemic – but there has been a continuous trend and stable or increasing demand. ‘It was regular demand, or even increased demand in extraordinary times, where we had to organize ourselves and we did it very successfully. ‘This means, as a result, there was not a single interruption in our supply chain toward the patient. Not a single one. The entire time even though we had shortages on the material side, the US Defence Production Act was used to handle things in the United States for shipments outside of the US and it became very difficult. We relied on those types of materials, and we needed to continue to manage this. We learned a lot for the benefit of our company, particularly forward-thinking and what we could do to further ensure the security of supply and resilience we need in the supply chain.’ The company has invested €230 million in its new production building which is under construction at HQ in Ravensburg having been started in November 2021. The shell of the building is complete and 122 meters long, 44 meters wide. It will feature several new commercial filling lines to effectively increase aseptic manufacturing capacity for its global customer base. Vetter plans to install the first cleanrooms by the end of 2024. ‘This is, let me say short and mid-term investment, what we have right now is €1.5 billion in total for Germany and we are implementing models for our new commercial facility in the US. You may know currently our footprint is mainly in Ravensburg, but we have a development service site close to Chicago and another development service site in Austria which is one we added three years ago.’ He said clear communication with partners, customers, and patients along with the company’s interpretation of the circumstances they had during Covid times were all valuable lessons to have learned. ‘We got feedback from our customers as we had a very proactive way of communicating. We didn't wait until somebody asked us what was going on, we decided to communicate relatively regularly on our website through a link we send out to our clients and letters every second week or in extraordinary cases or special cases even with more frequency. ‘It was in my opinion, one of the core elements that made our customers happy and got them more security on their supply. We support it and the other big piece is the material supply in the procurement environment. Here, we learned that we have to create smart inventory limits for selected products where you have a long lead time, especially for those parts that are single-source in the United States. One of our biggest tasks in the procurement after Covid was to find sources in Europe. To ensure continued supply in any other crisis that may have come. ‘Maybe I could add a third big piece about our people and employees in the company. It was very important for us to treat them well. And that they were comfortable while working for us during Covid times. You know some of the team could work from home or had to work from home. Others had to come in as you cannot do operator work at home. You have to organize the testing they had to do frequently.’ He said the feedback management received showed they had done a good job and people felt safe and treated well during this time. There's a lot of activity in this business. But if it comes to competition, really then we see what niche we are in and that will be sometimes a niche of the niche. Our biggest competitor is the in-house production, not other CMOs. In many cases, we are the first choice for clients since we walk the talk do what we say and keep our promises. We would never over-promise and under-deliver.’ The supply chain ends with delivering products to Vetter’s clients and they work with the top 20 big pharmaceutical companies, global companies as well as smaller biotech companies. These companies place the orders and ask Vetter to produce their product. When completed, the product has the name of the customer on it. There is no Vetter name on it. ‘However, and this is why, for example, we need to give our employees a purpose in their work and the job they do, so we invite patients to our site and let them speak about their experience concentrated on heavy indications, like cancer for example, and without any exception, these types of products are on our portfolio. ‘The company has grown a lot in the last few years. At the moment, we have roughly 6,000 people at Ravensburg. When I started in 2009, it was below 3000 and it's still growing.’ The new facility in Germany should employ an additional 500 plus but the company will take a step-by-step approach. They intend to first add the filling lines which will add the first team of people working at the new site. The staffing will grow organically rather than 500 new members of staff starting on one day. ‘Our customers look for flexibility. So, this is one of the tasks we have to prepare an answer for and that is automatization wherever possible. One example is our automated visual inspection when the major steps in our value chain are compounding filling and visual inspection assembly packaging. ‘This is in a nutshell what we do, and we have 100% visual inspection to be done. Every single piece is inspected, and in the past, it was done manually. We have 700-plus people doing nothing but this. Then manual visual inspection inspecting the syringe via the cartridge and deciding if it's good or bad and this must be done properly. ‘Now with automated visual inspection lines. We are heavily invested in this, and this is one example. This allows us to provide more flexibility if the customer needs more products, for example.’ With the new facility and staff coming on board, the future is looking bright for Vetter. The company will continue to supply patients all over the world with medicines, many of which are vital while providing support from drug product development through clinical and commercial filing to assembly and packaging services for vials, syringes, and cartridges. It also develops prefilled drug delivery systems together with its customers.