Global Microbial Fermentation in Pharmaceutical Market 2026 – 2035

Reports Description

The microbial fermentation in terms of pharmaceutical market size is estimated at USD 25.02 billion in 2025 and is projected to rise from USD 27.01 billion in 2026 to USD 50.12 billion in 2035 with a CAGR value of 7.9% between 2026 and 2035.

The Market growth is fueled by the increasing demand for biologics and biosimilars, the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, the increased use of sustainable biomanufacturing processes, and increasing technologies of fermentation with increased productivity.

Market Highlight

• North America: The microbial fermentation in the pharmaceutical market had a 39% market share in 2025.

• The fastest CAGR is projected to be 9.8% in Asia Pacific within the period of 2026 to 2035.

• By type of product, the recombinant proteins segment took approximately 44% of the market share in the year 2025.

• By type of microorganism, the yeast segment had the highest share of 35% in 2025 a segment of bacteria had the share of 32%.

• According to the application, the highest share of 60% in the market was held by the therapeutics segment in 2025 with the vaccine production segment forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 10.2% within the estimated period of 2026 to 2035.

• The trend is that contract pharmaceutical fermentation services are 61% proportional to microbial fermentation in 2025.

Significant Growth Factors

The Microbial Fermentation in Pharmaceutical Market Trends present significant growth opportunities due to several factors:

• Surging Demand for Biologics and Biosimilars: The main force behind the fermentation of microbes is the growing uptake of biopharmaceutical products in the world with biologics comprising about 40% of the world pharmaceutical market and more than half of the demand being based on therapeutic proteins and vaccinations. There is a paradigm shift in the approaches to drug development and production with biologic drugs that are mostly fermented to create, with statistics from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recorded in 2025 revealing that about 70% of new drug applications feature biologics, and these are generally manufactured using fermentation technologies. By 2025, the pharmaceutical market in the world has attained an estimated valuation of USD 1.5 trillion, with the biggest portion coming under the biopharmaceutical industry as the world experiences a boom in microbial fermentation technology. Microbial fermentation makes possible the creation of complex biomolecules such as monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer as well as autoimmune diseases, recombinant insulin to treat diabetes in millions of patients across the world, therapeutic enzymes to treat genetically caused diseases and metabolic disorders, and vaccines to prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases through scalable production. The biosimilars market is one of the strongest growth factors, as the relatively affordable substitutes of the reference biologics are increasing access to the otherwise costly treatments. Based on studies, biosimilars cost much less than their originator biologics and are therefore more affordable to the patients and necessitate the use of efficient and cost-effective manufacturing processes. Over 54% of all drug-development initiatives in the world today rely on fermentation of enzymes, vaccines, biosimilars, and small-molecule antibiotics, proving the technology to be among the key drivers of modern pharmaceutical production. The increasing chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and autoimmune diseases provide sustained demand for the biologic drugs, and the treatment courses of these conditions are long-term, and as such create a high level of ongoing demand for the fermented pharmaceutical drugs. The modern fermentation process currently has titers of above 100 g/L on some proteins, which contrasts with the first systems generating less than 1 g/L, a hundredfold greater productivity allowing large-scale biomanufacturing to be economical.

• Technological Advancements and Process Optimization: The development of technology in the market has increased tremendously with the incorporation of new advanced bioprocessing, genetic engineering, and process analytical technology in the fermentation system. New technologies include the creation of new microbial strains by metabolic engineering to yield a higher yield of desired compounds, single-use fermentation models to avoid contamination and to maximize batch turnover faster, the use of continuous fermentation to enhance productivity and to minimize waste output relative to traditional batch fermentation, and the use of AI to optimize fermentation conditions in real-time by using machine learning algorithms to maximize the desired product yield with reduced contamination and shorter turnover time. Automation was also implemented more frequently in fermentation plants, by 2025, and improved the reproducibility of batches and quality uniformity in pharmaceutical manufacture. The current fermentation systems have advanced features like real-time analytical process (PAT) sensors to measure critical variables, automated feeding controls to maximize the productivity of the nutrient delivery, in-location product recovery to lower the cost of downstream processing, and integrated bioprocess control which is used to observe the optimal condition during the fermentation cycles. To give an example, AI-based fermentation systems increased in usage by 22%, which optimized oxygen transfer, agitation and feeding policies to achieve maximum products. Usage of a real-time PAT sensor enhanced the efficiency of monitoring by 29%, improving the consistency of the batch and lowering the rate of batch failure by 14%. BioVectra Inc. announced in recent years the capacity of diversification with single-use microbial fermentation technology to accommodate biologics in technology transfer and optimization to provide greater flexibility and faster turnaround time and maximum capacity utilization. The single use sterile fermenters offer distinct advantages to the stainless-steel fermenters in regard to batch segregation and low cross contamination risks. Moreover, the current genetic engineering methods (such as CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing) make it possible to precisely modify the genomes of microorganisms, and artificial biology pathways (making novel compounds with the help of synthetic biology) make it possible to develop high-throughput screening methods to find the best production organism. The ongoing product innovation by major producers such as Lonza, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Sartorius AG and Merck KGaA is continuing to grow the competencies and enhance the performance of pharmaceutical manufacturers who would need solid and consistent fermentation processes.

What are the Major Advances Changing the Microbial Fermentation in Pharmaceutical Market Today

• Continuous Fermentation and Perfusion Culture Systems: The change from the traditional batch fermentation to the more advanced continuous and perfusion system is one of the most significant developmental changes in the technology which has allowed the sustained production with increased productivity, less waste production and better control of the process. Continuous fermentation ensures steady-state conditions with new medium constantly being added and spent medium and product being removed to prevent the lag phases and productivity losses of batch processes. In perfusion culture, cells are held constant, yet the medium is continuously exchanged, with extremely high cell densities and productivity being attained, which is not possible in batch systems. Continuous fermentation has a number of benefits, such as higher productivity where 2-3 times more volumetric output than batch processes can be achieved, lower waste, where steady-state operation means that no batch-to-batch cleanup is necessary, better control where there are consistent process parameters permitting closer quality specifications, and a smaller equipment footprint where the same output is achieved in smaller vessel volumes. These attractive advantages have increased the use of continuous fermentation by 18% by the next-generation biologics manufacturers. The perfusion systems find special use in the manufacture of labile products that need speed in recovery, long production campaigns that minimize changes in equipment and production of products that are better than those produced by batch processes due to the ability to maintain constant environmental conditions.

• Single-Use Fermentation Systems and Modular Manufacturing: Single-use fermentation systems have transformed biomanufacturing by eliminating cleaning validation, lowering the risk of contamination, and allowing very flexible capacity. Single-use fermenters use pre-sterilized disposable cultivation chambers, which avoid taking time to clean and validate stainless-steel systems. The market data show that the adoption of single-use fermenters has risen 34% as biopharma manufacturers are focusing on shorter batch turnover with the demand rising 28% as manufacturers realize the benefits of the operational tool. Such systems offer advantages such as lower capital expenditures to avoid the need to purchase costly stainless-steel infrastructure, quick implementation (taking weeks instead of years to set up a facility), greater flexibility to reuse production for another product, and greater risk management to isolate contamination contained in disposable parts. There was an upsurge of 19% in modular biomanufacturing facilities, which offered emergent biotech companies scalable opportunities without the huge infrastructure expenditure. Single-use technology is especially useful to contract manufacturing organizations with a large number of clients, a clinical stage level production with fast campaign turnover, and emerging markets that are developing a biomanufacturing capacity without the need to comply with legacy infrastructure. Although stainless-steel fermenters are still the major ones used at a large commercial scale (61% of systems), single-use systems are the most common in clinical production and are increasingly competing at a larger scale with systems currently available up to 2,000 liters.

• Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology Applications: The combination of improved methods of genetic engineering has greatly broadened the number of products available through the microbial fermentation process and allows the production of compounds that were previously only accessible by extraction of natural sources or by complex chemistry reactions. Metabolic engineering is the optimization of microbial metabolism, primarily by altering enzymatic pathways so as to maximize flux toward desired products and getting rid of competing pathways that redirect carbon to undesired byproducts and the expression of non-native pathways so as to produce non-native products. Synthetic biology goes more extreme by designing artificial genetic circuits that regulate gene expression, creating minimal genomes that only have the essential functions, and creating modular pathways by assembling different organisms. These methods have made possible breakthrough applications such as the production of artemisinin, a precursor to antimalarial drugs, in yeast; the biosynthesis of human growth hormone and insulin in bacteria; and the production of complex antibiotics by engineered biosynthetic gene clusters. Increased attention to biosimilars offered colossal opportunities to fermentation technology because biosimilars were much more affordable than original biologics and, therefore, available to a larger patient population. Pharmaceutical firms are spending a lot of money on research and development in order to come up with a new mode of fermentation and this has seen them invest more in research and development, resulting in new and better biopharmaceuticals, which are helping boost the market.

• Contract Manufacturing and Outsourcing Expansion: The growing tendency of outsourcing fermentation manufacturing services to dedicated contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) has transformed the biologic production method of the pharmaceutical industry. The contract pharmaceutical fermentation services will grow to USD 16.0 billion in 2025 and to USD 34.6 billion by 2035 at 7.8% CAGR which is one of the significant growths in outsourcing. Pharmaceutical firms are also seeking collaborations with CDMOs to gain access to specialized fermentation know-how where they lack the ability to develop it internally, decrease capital outlay by utilizing contractor facilities, expedite time-to-market by having manufacturing companies with experience in the field, and allow them to scale production capacity with fluctuations in commercial demand. The benefits of CDMOs encompass already existing GMP manufacturing sites, experience with fermentation of a wide range of product types, regulatory experience negotiating complicated approval procedures, and global manufacturing systems, which bring geographic diversification. Commercial GMP portion controls half of the contract fermentation services and the significance of quality-assured production of the products to the market. Contract fermentation services are dominated by microbial host systems at 61% in 2025, with such systems playing a crucial role in serving as the main production platform with regard to cost-effective scalable pharmaceutical production. The increase in the outsourcing of biologics production to CROs/CDMOs will lead to expansion in the market in the coming forecast time.

Category Wise Insights

By Product Type

Why Recombinant Proteins Dominate the Market?

The most significant part is in the transformation of recombinant proteins in 2025, which will have about 44% of the market share. The dominance is an indication of the therapeutic criticality of protein-based biologics and their ubiquitous usage in the treatment of a wide range of medical conditions, from diabetes and growth disorders to cancer and autoimmune diseases. Recombinant protein technology allows human proteins to be produced in microbial hosts whereby obstacles such as insufficient supply, risk of contamination, and concerns with immunogenicity are overcome as compared to extraction of human/animal tissues. Microbial fermentation has been used to yield recombinant proteins essential in the treatment of cancers, inflammatory diseases, and infectious diseases (as monoclonal antibodies); in treating genetic metabolic diseases by replacing missing proteins (as therapeutic enzymes); in stimulating tissue repair and cell growth (as growth factors); and in treating diabetes and deficiency conditions (as hormones), with the highest and fastest-growing category being the monoclonal antibodies.

The segment of recombinant proteins has the advantage of well-established means of production, proven clinical efficacy in many indications, solid patent protection of innovator profitability, and the growing biosimilar market offers affordable access. The pharmaceutical companies use recombinant protein services because of the therapeutic versatility, the well-established production procedures, and the capability to offer multiple applications to aid drug development and commercial production. The processes of fermentation today are regularly able to give titers above 10 g/L of most recombinant proteins, and in a few highly optimized systems achieve titers over 100+ g/L, allowing production of recombinant proteins economically. The segment is underpinned by relentless advancement in protein expression technologies and increased accessibility to specialized production technologies that allow a wide range of therapeutic applications with enhanced levels of manufacturing capabilities.

Antibiotics are another significant category of products, and the most common mode of production of these life-saving drugs in the past was microbial fermentation. The most common antibiotics, such as penicillins, cephalosporins, tetracyclines, and macrolides, are mostly fermented by the Penicillium, Streptomyces, and other microorganisms that generate antibiotics. Although there is a worry that antibiotics are becoming resistant and fewer antibiotics are being discovered, there is large-scale production of antibiotics through fermentation that are used to treat bacterial infections in most parts of the world.

By Microorganism Type

Why Yeast Dominates Fermentation Systems?

Yeast is the largest segment of microorganisms, as it has a market share of about 35% in 2025, and bacteria come in second with 32%. This leadership demonstrates the distinctiveness of yeast as a biological system with such benefits as established use in the pharmaceutical industry, genetic engineering that is easy to perform allowing strain optimization, high production levels of heterologous proteins, safety profiles displaying GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status, and post-translational modifications such as glycosylation that are important in the therapeutic application of proteins. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the classical baker’s and brewer’s yeast, is widely used in the production of recombinant proteins, therapeutic enzymes, and a number of metabolites. High levels of secretion make Pichia pastoris especially attractive to heterologous protein expression, close regulation facilitates controlled production, and endogenous protein secretion is also low and therefore makes purification easy.

Well-known biology with a wide array of genetic technologies, scalability (through shake flasks to fermenters up to 100,000 liters and beyond), and regulatory acceptance due to a long history of safe pharmaceutical use are all items that favor yeast fermentation. The yeast segment is also the fastest growing because of its extensive use in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries, but its applications grow beyond its traditional usage in complex biologics manufacturing. The recent metabolic engineering has greatly enhanced the production of yeast, allowing it to produce compounds such as the precursor to artemisinin in antimalarial medications, human insulin and other therapeutic proteins, and other specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Bacteria, specifically E. coli, are about 32% of the microorganism market and are irreplaceable in making pharmaceutical fermentation because of quick growth enabling short production cycles, high productivity because of the achievements of protein concentrations of over 30% of total cellular protein, simple nutrient requirements that decrease the cost of media, and enlarged genetic tools that support strain engineering. E. coli is the workhorse in the production of simple proteins, enzymes and other pharmaceuticals that do not involve glycosylation. Host systems based on microbes are estimated to make up 61% of contract fermentation services in 2025 highlighting their importance as the main production need of cost-effective manufacturing and scalable production.

By Application

Why Therapeutics Production Dominates Applications?

The largest application segment is therapeutics production, which will account for about 60% of the total market share in the year 2025. Such leadership is in keeping with the massive pharmaceutical industry involved in fermentation-manufactured drugs that cure millions of patients all over the world with diabetes and growth disorders as well as cancer and autoimmune diseases. The most valuable fermentation products are therapeutic protein products such as monoclonal antibodies, recombinant hormones, therapeutic enzymes, and blood factors, and individual drugs are bringing in billions of dollars in annual sales. This is because the medicine segment is the leading segment, as it has high demand for biologics, monoclonal antibodies, and vaccines, with the segment expected to continue to grow at the highest rate due to the more biologic approvals and the launch of biosimilars.

The therapeutics sector enjoys high clinical effectiveness that has been tested over level III trials, good reimbursement since approved therapies are insurable, protection by patent that justifies high prices by the innovator, and increased competition by biosimilars that enhances accessibility. The therapeutic production of drugs using fermentation is an expensive process in which pharmaceutical companies invest heavily to cater to the increasing demand by the world for effective remedies to chronic and life-threatening illnesses.

The production of vaccines continues to grow at the most significant rate, with the CAGR expected to reach 10.2% between 2026 and 2035 due to the growing number of immunization programs, the rise of new infectious diseases, and the COVID-19 pandemic proving the paramount role of vaccines to the population. Microbial fermentation is effective and flexible in producing microbial cells, proteins, and enzymes to be used in the production of vaccines, which is deemed important in the synthesis of mRNA vaccines. WHO estimates that the cost of 16 billion vaccination shots reaching 141 billion USD was distributed worldwide in 2021, which shows the massive proportions of vaccine production. Vaccine antigens, adjuvants, and delivery systems of various vaccine types are produced by fermentation. The increase in the demand of vaccines is one of the main factors that drive the general market of microbial fermentation technology.

By End-User

Why Biopharmaceutical Companies Lead Adoption?

The biggest end-user market segment is represented by biopharmaceutical companies, which will have up to 41% market share in 2025. This leadership is a sign of the fact that these companies are the main developers and producers of fermentation-based therapeutics and have the integrated capability of conducting research and development as well as commercial production. Large biopharmaceutical firms such as Amgen, Genentech, Biogen, and Regeneron have substantial in-house fermentation capacity to support their product lines of monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, and other biologics. These firms commit billions of dollars in fermentation infrastructure, such as large-scale GMP manufacturing plants, state-of-the-art bioprocess development laboratories, and quality control measures that guarantee product consistency.

The biopharmaceutical segment has the advantage of vertical integration, which allows it to control the production processes; proprietary technology, which gives it a competitive advantage; and well-established regulatory approvals of its facilities and processes. Nonetheless, large companies are also shifting to outsourcing of CDMOs in order to increase capacity flexibly and provide specialized services and geographic diversification, which is driving the increase in the contract manufacturing segment.

The CMOs are a significant and fast-growing market segment as more and more pharmaceutical companies delegate fermentation manufacturing. CMOs/CDMOs offer specialized fermentation skills, developed GMP plants, regulatory expertise, and scalable capacity that allow pharmaceutical firms to advance with drug discovery and development and capitalize on the efficiency of contractor manufacturing. This trend of outsourcing has been effective, as indicated by the contract pharmaceutical fermentation services market that is estimated to be USD 16.0 billion by 2025 and is estimated to grow to USD 34.6 billion by 2035.

Report Scope

Regional Analysis

How Big is the North America Market Size?

The North America microbial fermentation in pharmaceutical market size is estimated at USD 9.76 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach approximately USD 19.55 billion by 2035, with a 7.4% CAGR from 2026 to 2035.

Why did North America Dominate the Market in 2025?

The most notable stakeholder in the world market is North America, which will control about 39% of the total market share in 2025, due to the presence of major pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, well-developed biomanufacturing infrastructure, high levels of investment in research and development to drive innovation, and a friendly regulatory environment where the FDA is supporting biologic development. It is specifically forecasted that the United States will have over 30% share over the period of forecast due to the concentration of the major biopharmaceutical firms, the large-scale capabilities of the CDMO and the government support of the biotech industry by providing financial support and pro-biotech policies.

What is the Size of the U.S. Market?

The market size of U.S. microbial fermentation in pharmaceuticals is estimated at USD 8.43 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach almost USD 16.87 million in 2035 and has risen at a CAGR of 7.5% between 2026 and 2035.

U.S. Market Trends

The US market is the largest segment of the global demand because of the presence of biologics that constitute greater than 40% of the pharmaceutical pipelines, large-scale manufacturing with many large-scale fermentation plants, advanced innovations in bioprocessing technologies, and robust venture capital to fund the biotech startups. The U.S. has a strong regulatory framework that guarantees the quality of products, besides making innovation easy, extensive reimbursement that supports biologic treatments, and linking the research ecosystem between academia, industry, and government.

Why is Asia Pacific Experiencing Fastest Growth?

The Asia-Pacific region is set to record the highest growth, as the projected CAGR is 9.8% in 2026-2035. The rapid increase is due to the increase in biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, the growth of the generic and biosimilar business, especially in China and India, the rise in R&D investments by multinationals and domestic firms, and the support of the government policies towards the growth of biomanufacturing. Some of the analyses indicate that Asia Pacific is likely to control 42% of the market of microbial fermentation technology by 2037 indicating its strategic value.

China Market Trends

The market in China is a rapidly growing one, which can be attributed to the government’s efforts to boost biotechnology, huge investment in biomanufacturing facilities, a rising domestic drug manufacturing sector, and the leadership as a big contract manufacturing center in the world, which serves multinational pharmaceutical firms. It is predicted that China will grow substantially, with market shares exceeding 25% within the projection period due to national policies and strategies of establishing biologics and cutting down reliance on imported therapeutics.

Why is Europe Balancing Innovation with Regulation?

The European market is big, indicating a developed pharmaceutical industry, a biosimilar market with well-developed manufacturing, a focus on sustainable manufacturing practices and a well-developed regulatory system that provides quality. Europe has 28% of the world bioreactors market that has a high level of biosimilar production and large volume microbial fermentation. It is expected that currently, the market share of Germany is approximately 20% and will increase to that level during the forecast period owing to the trend of personalized medicine and biologics.

Germany Market Trends

The market presence of Germany is high because of the presence of major pharmaceutical firms such as Boehringer Ingelheim and Merck, a developed biotechnology industry, developed biomanufacturing, and a focus on innovation. The European manufacturing excellence has been concentrated on the 57% production capacity in Germany, France, and Switzerland.

Why is the Middle East & Africa Region Developing Capabilities?

The LAMEA region demonstrates the new development with the increasing popularity under the influence of the increasing healthcare expenditure, the developing pharmaceutical industries, and the governmental efforts to encourage the local biomanufacturing. Although the market share is not significant yet, the gradual changes of the market are supported by the better infrastructure and rising awareness, and the Middle East states invest in the biotechnology industry and promote the field as one of the economic diversification strategies.

Top Players in the Market and Their Offerings

• Lonza Group AG
• Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
• Sartorius AG
• Merck KGaA
• Eppendorf AG
• Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies
• Samsung Biologics
• Catalent Inc.
• Boehringer Ingelheim
• WuXi Biologics
• Others

Key Developments

The market has undergone significant developments as industry participants seek to expand capabilities and enhance product portfolios.

• In March 2025: BIOVECTRA, a part of Agilent Technologies Inc., announced it is the recipient of the 2025 Outsourced Pharma CDMO Leadership Award in the category of biologics. The award recognized BIOVECTRA’s performance in key areas such as quality, reliability, and technical capability. (Source: BIOVECTRA)

• In September 2023: Danone UK partnered with Chr Hansen to push innovation in dairy and plant-based products, supplying 1800 strains of ferments for further research on the gut microbiome, focusing on customer health and sustainability by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the supply chain. (Source: Danone UK)

These strategic activities have allowed companies to strengthen market positions, expand manufacturing capacity, enhance technological capabilities, and capitalize on growth opportunities within the expanding market.

The Microbial Fermentation in Pharmaceutical Market is segmented as follows:

By Product Type

• Recombinant Proteins
  • Monoclonal Antibodies
  • Therapeutic Enzymes
  • Growth Factors
  • Hormones (Insulin, Growth Hormone)
• Antibiotics
• Vaccines
• Biosimilars
• Amino Acids and Organic Acids
• Other Products

By Microorganism Type

• Bacteria
  • E. coli
  • Bacillus species
  • Other Bacteria
• Yeast
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae
  • Pichia pastoris
  • Other Yeast
• Fungi/Molds
• Algae

By Fermentation Type

• Batch Fermentation
• Fed-Batch Fermentation
• Continuous Fermentation

By Application

• Therapeutics Production
• Vaccine Production
• Enzyme Production
• API Manufacturing
• Other Applications

By End-User

• Biopharmaceutical Companies
• Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs/CDMOs)
• Contract Research Organizations (CROs)
• Research and Academic Institutes

Regional Coverage:

North America

• U.S.
• Canada
• Mexico
• Rest of North America

Europe

• Germany
• France
• U.K.
• Russia
• Italy
• Spain
• Netherlands
• Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

• China
• Japan
• India
• New Zealand
• Australia
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Rest of Asia Pacific

The Middle East & Africa

• Saudi Arabia
• UAE
• Egypt
• Kuwait
• South Africa
• Rest of the Middle East & Africa

Latin America

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Rest of Latin America