West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) 46th Annual William Blair Growth Stock Conference summary

Key strategic themes and market positioning

• Operates in the high-growth injectable medicines market, holding the top position in primary containment and serving global pharmaceutical and biotech companies across all therapeutic classes.

• Maintains a significant moat through regulatory barriers, proprietary solutions, quality, reliability, scale, and long-term customer relationships.

• Benefits from favorable macro trends, including increased R&D, regulatory changes, nearshoring, and a projected injectables market increase from $700B in 2024 to $1.2T by 2030.

• Diverse portfolio with 60% of business in high-value products and delivery devices, and 55% of revenue from outside the US.

• Biologics and biosimilars represent 40% of revenue, with over 90% participation in new approvals and 95% participation in 2025 launches.

Growth drivers and operational focus

• High-value product (HVP) components are the fastest-growing segment, now representing 47% of revenue and over 70% of gross profit, driving double-digit growth and margin expansion.

• GLP-1s and Annex 1 regulatory changes are key growth areas, with elastomers and West Vantage revenues comprising 18% of total revenue in 1Q26 and Annex 1 upgrades expected to contribute 200 bps to FY26 revenues and 2-3x margin uplift.

• Capacity expansion and local-for-local production enhance supply chain resilience and support ongoing demand.

• Recurring revenues and expanding margins are supported by long-term drug life cycles and deep customer integration.

• Q1 results showed 15% organic growth, led by HVP components and strong performance in both GLP-1 and non-GLP-1 segments.

Leadership and organizational changes

• Recent executive team rebuild over the past 18-24 months, with several new leaders joining and management team strengthened.

• New CEO, Michel Lagarde, starting August 31, brings experience from Thermo Fisher and Patheon, aligning with strategic direction.

• Leadership team positioned to drive next phase of growth, focusing on scale, complexity, and value creation.