PUBLISHER: AnalystView Market Insights | PRODUCT CODE: 1944426
PUBLISHER: AnalystView Market Insights | PRODUCT CODE: 1944426
Pharmaceutical Spray Drying Market size was valued at US$ 2,130.30 Million in 2024, expanding at a CAGR of 7.50% from 2025 to 2032.
The pharmaceutical spray drying market focuses on the use of spray drying to turn liquid drug feeds such as solutions, suspensions, or emulsions into dry, free-flowing powders with controlled particle size, shape, density, and moisture or residual solvent levels. In pharmaceutical research and manufacturing, spray drying is widely treated as more than a simple drying step because it can be used to engineer particles for specific performance targets. It is often chosen when conventional processing cannot achieve the required powder properties, especially for compounds with poor water solubility, unstable actives, or formulations that need precise control over dissolution and dispersibility.
Growth in this market is closely linked to the increasing number of poorly soluble small-molecule candidates and the need for enabling formulation approaches such as amorphous solid dispersions, as well as the steady expansion of inhalation and nasal drug products where aerodynamic particle size is a critical quality attribute. Spray drying is also applied for taste masking, controlled release, stabilization of sensitive actives, and improving downstream manufacturability for blending, encapsulation, and tableting. For R&D and process development teams, the technology is valued for rapid formulation screening, predictable parameter-based tuning of particle properties, and a clearer path for scale-up when supported by process understanding and Quality by Design frameworks.
Pharmaceutical Spray Drying Market- Market Dynamics
More Poorly Soluble New Drugs and a Busy Approval Cycle Are Driving Spray Drying for Enabling Formulations
A key driver for the pharmaceutical spray drying market is the steady flow of new drug approvals and the growing need to "fix" molecules that do not dissolve well in water, since poor solubility often leads to low and variable absorption and forces formulation teams to use enabling approaches like spray-dried amorphous solid dispersions or carefully engineered dry powders. The scale of development work is clear in recent approval volumes: According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) CDER, new molecular entity approvals were 50 in 2021, 37 in 2022, 55 in 2023, and 50 in 2024, adding up to 192 NMEs across 2021-2024, which keeps pressure on R&D and manufacturing groups to select scalable processes early. At the pipeline level, the clinical workload remains large and continuous: According to ClinicalTrials.gov (U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH), the registry contains hundreds of thousands of studies overall, with tens of thousands in active or recruiting status in recent years, pointing to a wide base of programs that eventually require formulation optimization and tech transfer. On the production side, demand for reliable, repeatable manufacturing supports investment in particle engineering and drying technologies: According to the U.S. Census Bureau (manufacturing statistics for pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing), industry shipment values in the early 2020s are reported at hundreds of billions of dollars, meaning small gains in yield, batch consistency, and cycle time can translate into meaningful cost and supply improvements. This combination of a busy approval cycle, a large clinical pipeline, and high-value manufacturing output increases the number of cases where standard crystallization or milling is not enough, making spray drying a practical choice to control particle properties, improve dissolution, and reduce scale-up risk under GMP expectations.
Outsourced spray drying and processing keeps gaining attention because the development pipeline stays busy and many drug programs need specialized GMP facilities, solvent handling, and fast tech transfer without waiting for new internal capacity. According to ClinicalTrials.gov (U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH), the database has grown to well over 400,000 registered studies in the 2020s, with tens of thousands listed as active or recruiting in recent years, which points to a steady stream of formulation and process work moving through R&D. That workload connects directly to commercial readiness, since each successful program eventually needs a scalable and documented manufacturing route. According to U.S. FDA CDER, new molecular entity approvals reached 50 in 2021, 37 in 2022, 55 in 2023, and 50 in 2024, which adds up to 192 NMEs over 2021-2024; this level of approvals keeps pressure on manufacturers and contract partners to lock processes, run validation campaigns, and support launches where spray drying is often considered for particle engineering and consistent powder quality.
Finished dosage manufacturing also supports demand for spray drying because commercial production places high value on batch consistency, predictable powder flow, and controlled particle properties for downstream steps like blending, filling, encapsulation, tableting, or inhalation device performance. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (manufacturing statistics for pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing, NAICS 3254), U.S. shipment values for this industry are reported in the hundreds of billions of dollars in the early 2020s, showing how even small process gains in yield, cycle time, and deviations can matter financially at scale. Alongside this, according to U.S. FDA CDER annual drug approval reporting, the continuing flow of novel approvals through 2020-2024 supports ongoing lifecycle manufacturing activities such as scale-up, post-approval process changes, and second-source planning, all of which favor robust, repeatable powder-processing methods like spray drying when product performance depends on tight particle control.
Pharmaceutical Spray Drying Market- Geographical Insights
Pharmaceutical spray drying demand tends to concentrate in regions where drug development activity and GMP manufacturing output stay high, because spray drying is usually adopted when a pipeline exists that can move into scale-up and commercial supply. According to U.S. FDA CDER, new molecular entity approvals were 50 in 2021, 37 in 2022, 55 in 2023, and 50 in 2024, adding up to 192 approvals across 2021-2024, which signals a steady flow of products that need manufacturing-ready formulation decisions and controlled powder processing. According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the agency continued to publish strong levels of evaluation and authorization activity through the early 2020s, supporting ongoing demand for advanced processing technologies in Europe where compliance and documentation expectations are high. Across Asia, investment tends to follow growth in regulated manufacturing and export-oriented production; according to the World Health Organization (WHO) regulatory system strengthening publications in the early 2020s, more countries have been progressing toward higher maturity regulatory functions, which typically supports broader adoption of GMP-aligned technologies and specialized contract manufacturing capacity.
United States Pharmaceutical Spray Drying Market- Country Insights
The United States looks like the strongest single-country opportunity because it combines approvals, clinical activity, and large-scale manufacturing economics. According to U.S. FDA CDER, the 2021-2024 NME approval run-rate remained high, with annual counts of 50, 37, 55, and 50, which keeps launch timelines and lifecycle manufacturing work active and encourages investment in scalable particle engineering routes such as spray drying. Development depth also remains visible; according to ClinicalTrials.gov (U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH), the registry includes well over 400,000 studies in total in the 2020s, with a very large number of trials listed as active or recruiting in recent years, which supports continued demand for formulation development and process optimization. The manufacturing base is also large enough for small efficiency improvements to matter; according to the U.S. Census Bureau (pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing, NAICS 3254), shipment values are reported in the hundreds of billions of dollars in the early 2020s, reinforcing why yield, batch consistency, containment, and solvent-handling capability become practical buying criteria for both equipment and outsourced services.
The competitive landscape usually splits into equipment suppliers focused on lab-to-commercial spray drying systems and CDMOs that offer development plus GMP spray drying as a service, often bundled with analytical testing and regulatory documentation. Commonly referenced equipment vendors include GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft (strong in large-scale system engineering and global service coverage), BUCHI Labortechnik AG (strong in laboratory and pilot tools used in formulation screening and process development), SPX FLOW, Inc. (strong in industrial drying experience and custom builds), Yamato Scientific Co., Ltd. (strong in lab-scale penetration in research environments), and Glatt GmbH (strong in pharmaceutical process equipment engineering and GMP-oriented designs). Commonly referenced service-oriented vendors include Catalent, Inc. (strong in moving programs from development into commercial manufacturing), Lonza Group AG (strong in global GMP manufacturing networks and complex programs), and Hovione, S.A. (strong in particle engineering and enabling formulation work, including inhalation-focused development). In purchasing decisions, the main differentiators tend to be proven scale-up performance, containment level for potent compounds, solvent safety and recovery options, analytical capability for particle and solid-state characterization, and inspection-ready quality systems that reduce technical and regulatory risk.
In November 2025, Hovione (a Portugal-based contract development and manufacturing organization, CDMO) completed an initial US$100 million investment round to expand its East Windsor, New Jersey site, taking the footprint to more than 200,000 sq. ft. and more than doubling spray-drying capacity; the first phase adds a 31,000-sq.-ft. building with two size-3 spray dryers (PSD-3) for amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) production, with construction underway and GMP operations targeted for Q2 2026.
In October 2025, Codis (a CDMO formed from the combination of U.S.-based Particle Dynamics and a U.K. spray drying site previously operated by EuroAPI) launched with over 5,000 metric tons per year of spray-drying output capacity, more than 300 employees globally, and 40,000 square meters of manufacturing space across three GMP facilities, positioning the business for commercial-scale ASD, particle engineering, and finished dose manufacturing, while noting seven regulatory approvals achieved.
In September 2024, Seran Bioscience (a CDMO providing development, analytical, and manufacturing services) announced a strategic growth transaction of more than US$200 million led by Bain Capital Life Sciences (with Vivo Capital remaining a key shareholder) to support construction of a new commercial-scale manufacturing facility planned for completion in 2026, expanding integrated capabilities across oral, pulmonary, and nasal delivery with particle-engineering technologies including spray drying, hot melt extrusion, nano-milling, and fluid-bed manufacturing, plus finished dose and packaging/serialization; the company cited 200+ team members (including 150+ scientists and engineers) and plans to hire up to 150 additional employees, building toward a nearly 200,000-sq.-ft. campus in Bend, Oregon.
In September 2024, Evonik (a specialty chemicals company and pharmaceutical excipient supplier) opened a new Darmstadt facility for drying aqueous dispersions of EUDRAGIT(R) polymers, described as a double-digit million-euro investment to expand excipient capacity for oral drug delivery, improve supply security and delivery times, and operate with green electricity and steam from local waste incineration, targeting savings of more than 1,000 CO2 equivalents per year and alignment with IPEC-GMP guidelines through direct connection to its EUDRAGIT(R) dispersion production.