From Barcelona to Chicago: Esteve Targets U.S. Drugmakers

Esteve acquires Regis to bring European CDMO expertise to US soil, boosting domestic drug ingredient development and manufacturing services.

7 Aug 2025

On July 31st Esteve CDMO, a Spanish contract manufacturer, completed its first American purchase: Regis Technologies, a small but respected Illinois firm specialising in complex active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The deal plants Esteve’s flag in North America and, it hopes, in the order books of more American drugmakers.

Regis, with 70 employees just outside Chicago, offers early-stage development services and bespoke synthesis for domestic pharmaceutical clients. Its reputation rests on technical skill and regulatory reliability. Esteve plans to amplify this with new capital, broader capabilities and upgraded kit. "For US pharma companies, the need is clear: technical strength, fast timelines, and compliance without offshoring," said an executive familiar with the deal. "Regis already checks those boxes. Now we will take it further."

The timing is deliberate. Supply-chain upsets, from pandemics to geopolitical friction, have encouraged pharmaceutical firms to favour regional partners over distant suppliers. American competitors such as Cambrex and Thermo Fisher have prospered from the shift. Esteve’s approach is to blend its European quality standards with a nimble local operation.

An expansion of Regis’s facilities is already on the drawing board. The aim is to trim project timelines, increase collaboration between teams on both sides of the Atlantic and cater to clients working on intricate or emerging therapies. Industry watchers see the deal as another sign of the contract-development and manufacturing (CDMO) sector’s growing clout: outsourcing is now standard, and firms that can scale quickly and adapt locally will take the lion’s share of growth.

For Esteve, the acquisition is more than a foothold in a lucrative market. It is a bet that bridging European precision and American speed will create a formula customers find hard to resist.