their stake. Examples are Cambrex and Dowpharma in the US, Avecia, DSM and Siegfried in Europe and WuXi App Tech in China. In conclusion, biocatalysis should be, or become, part of the technology toolbox of any fine chemical company. Mammalian cell culture fermentation, on the other hand, should be considered only by large fine chemical companies with a full war chest and a long-term strategic orientation. The industry Within the chemical universe, the fine chemical industry is positioned between the commodity, their suppliers, and specialty chemical industries, their customers. Depending on the services offered, there are two types of fine chemical companies. The Fine Chemical Companies are active in industrial scale production, both of standard and exclusive products. If the latter prevails, they are referred to as Fine Chemical / Custom Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs). The main assets of the Contract Research Organizations (CROs) are their research laboratories. CRAMS; Contract Research and Manufacturing Organizations are hybrids (see section 4.2). Fine Chemical / Custom Manufacturing Companies Fine chemical / Custom Manufacturing companies in the narrower sense are active in process scale up, pilot plant (trial) production, industrial-scale exclusive and non-exclusive manufacture and marketing. Their product portfolios comprise exclusive products, produced by custom manufacturing, as main activity, non-exclusive products, e.g. API-for Generics, and standard products. Characteristics are high asset intensity, batch production in campaigns in multipurpose plants, above-industry-average R&D expenditures and close, multi-level and multi-functional relationships with industrial customers. The industry is very fragmented. 2000 – 3000 fine chemical companies exist globally, extending from small, "garage-type" outfits in China making just one product, all the way to the big, diversified enterprises, resp. units. The main reason for the fragmentation is the lack of economy of scale (see below). The industry is subject to a high degree of regulation even more so than the chemical industry as a whole, particularly if pharmaceutical fine chemical production is involved. The most important regulatory authorities are the (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and (Chinese) State Food & Drug Administration (SFDA), respectively. Their main responsibilities comprise formulating comprehensive supervision policies ("Good Manufacturing Practice") and control the implementation, to be in charge of drug registration, draw up criteria for marketing authorization and formulate national essential medicines lists. The European correspondent is the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), which is manly responsible for the scientific evaluation of medicines developed by pharmaceutical companies for use in the European Union. The role