company insight

Senn Chemicals - Your CDMO for SWISS quality peptides and amino acid derivatives

Senn Chemicals AG was founded in 1963, is family-owned and based in Switzerland. We are cGMP and ISO certified, and specialized in the production of peptides and amino acid derivatives. As a contract manufacturer we provide individual solutions starting from small scale for R&D to commercial production.

01 / What is Senn´s key competence?

Dr. Daniel Müller, CEO Senn Chemicals:
Senn has 55 years of experience in manufacturing high quality amino acid derivatives with very tight specifications. These compounds are used in the production of peptides. Over the years, Senn developed its’ own know-how to produce and manufacture peptides and peptide fragments. In addition we produce some resins, excipients and small molecules which fit to both our equipment and experience.

02 / Which industries are served by Senn?

Dr. Daniel Müller, CEO Senn Chemicals:
We supply peptides and peptides fragments to the pharmaceutical industry as well as to the cosmetic industry. We are cGMP approved and have been inspected several times by the US FDA. Quality really matters to us. With majority of our customers we have Quality Agreements in place to better serve the individual requirements of our customers. Products for cosmetic industry are manufactured according to ISO 9001-2015 standards.

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03 / Isn´t your location in Switzerland close to Zurich a competitive disadvantage because of the cost structure?

Dr. Daniel Müller, CEO Senn Chemicals:
Laughing: You obviously have been to Zurich and remember an expensive meal…

At Senn, we have technologies in house to produce peptides in situ: both solid phase and solution phase. Depending on the specific need of our customers we chose the optimal strategy. The choice of the strategy is also determined by the nature of the peptide, the requested volumes and the desired specification. If a customer requires, for instance, large volumes of a short or medium sized peptide, our R&D department will develop a solution phase synthesis. After scale up work and process development, peptide fragments will be produced in our large 2500 liter reactors and coupled. In parallel, analytical methods are developed and validated if needed. Choosing the most economic route of synthesis and providing optimal batch sizes enable us to be competitive and combined with high SWISS quality.

04 / Do you plan expand your capacities? Any plans to produce in Asia in future?

Dr. Daniel Müller, CEO Senn Chemicals:
To answer your first question: Yes, we plan to further expand our production capacities, but we will stay in Dielsdorf in Switzerland. We will invest in new equipment to extend our capability to produce APIs on behalf of our customers.

Regarding your second question: There are no plans to produce anywhere else in future. As you know, Senn Chemicals is family owned and the family strategy is to remain independent and to keep the know-how in Switzerland.

You may like to work with a company where you can easily have access to the key people including the top management.

05 / If I had already a peptide manufacturer I am satisfied with, why should I contact Senn Chemicals?

Dr. Daniel Müller, CEO Senn Chemicals:
There are a few reasons, why it is worth to get in contact to us:

  • You may want to save costs: Our R&D experts might develop a different route of synthesis to produce your peptide in larger scale or with a tight specification.
  • You may have a need to produce your peptide under cGMP conditions.
  • You may like to work with a company where you can easily have access to the key people including the top management.
  • You may want to work with a CDMO in an open and trustful partnership, having “your own” project manager handling your project.
  • You may want to work with a CDMO offering you access to production and R&D with the goals to really provide solutions.
  • You may want to work with a CDMO that can make decisions quickly and offers a lot of flexibility.
  • You may want to work with a CDMO you can rely on, providing services from route finding, scale up, process development, process validation, development and validation of analytical methods up to commercial supply.
  • You may want to have a second supplier you can count upon.
  • You may want to work with a CDMO which has been successfully inspected by the US FDA several times and exactly understands the needs of its customers.


And last but not least: You might like to work with friendly people, who pay special attention to your project and to you.

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