Dive Brief:
- Catalent is spending $200 million to expand biologics manufacturing capacity and drug product fill-and-finish capacity in Madison, Wisconsin, and Bloomington, Indiana.
- The work, which will take about three years, will more than double Catalent’s commercial biomanufacturing capacity.
- The Somerset, New Jersey-based contract manufacturer expects the investment will result in more than 100 new jobs in Madison and as many as 200 new jobs in Bloomington by the end of 2024, a company spokesman stated in an email to BioPharma Dive.
Dive Insight:
Catalent is focusing on internal investment to boost its biologics business after largely growing through acquisitions over the last several years. In 2017, the company bought biologics manufacturer Cook Pharmica for $950 million, gaining the 875,000-square-foot facility in Bloomington.
The CDMO already has work underway to expand packaging offerings in Bloomington after announcing a $14 million investment last month. The latest round of funds will go toward a 79,000-square-foot expansion for fill-and-finish capacity, a high-speed flexible vial line, a high-speed flexible syringe/cartridge line and an automated vial inspection machine.
Bloomington has been a bright spot for Catalent as other businesses, including its Softgel segment, have weakened. The facility was responsible for almost 75% of the revenue growth in the company’s biologics and specialty drug delivery segment in the 2018 fiscal year.
In Madison, the company will expand mammalian cell culture capacity by building two new suites, each with a 2 x 2,000 liter single-use bioreactor system. The moves will offer more capacity at the 2,000- or 4,000-liter batch scale, the company said.
“Catalent’s continued investments in innovative technologies and flexible capacity allow us to offer the most comprehensive solutions to bring important and innovative treatments to market faster,” Barry Littlejohns, president of the company’s biologics and specialty drug delivery unit, said in a Jan. 7 statement.