October 14, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SOMMERSET, N.J. – Catalent Pharma Solutions , a third-party drug manufacturer, will expand its Madison, Wisc.-based biomanufacturing site to keep up with strong demand for services, Outsourcing-Pharma reported this morning.
The company is looking to raise funds for the expansion that will expand commercial capabilities. Steve Leonard, Catalent’s senior vice president of global operations, told Outsourcing-Pharma the Madison site was built with expansion in mind. Leonard said the current space in Madison is “really almost full already -- which is a great problem to have.”
While there seem to be plans to expand the two-year-old facility, the size and scope of that expansion are as yet unknown. It is also unknown if the expansion will call for an increase in new jobs at the site. Funding for the project will likely determine what additions Catalent will seek to make to the property. Much of the space is currently occupied by a 1,000 liter single-use bioreactor. The addition of that bioreactor has led to a “substantial double-digit increase in the commercial volumes” at the Madison site, BioPharma-Reporter said in a September report.
The company’s Madison site, which opened in 2013, is currently dedicated to early-phase products for pharmaceutical companies that have contracted with Catalent. Leonard said in his interview that Catalent does a lot of business with small and medium pharmaceutical companies, including “a lot of early phase startups that are moving from one venture capital funding tranche to the next.” This allows those companies to move quickly between funding rounds while their products are developed in a speedy manner, he added.
Catalent’s Madison site includes expanded mammalian cell line engineering and biomanufacturing capabilities utilizing single-use systems, according to the company website.
The Madison site is not the only Catalent property to get an upgrade. In April, Catalent announced it planned to invest $62 million in its Winchester, Ky. Site, creating an additional 300 jobs. That was the second phase of expansion for the Kentucky site. Recently, Catalent completed a $52 million expansion that created 140 new jobs and added 80,000 square feet to its 100,000 square foot site. The Kentucky site employs more than 500 people and manufactures more than 100 over-the-counter and prescription drug products for Catalent. The Kentucky site has manufactured over 3 billion tablets and capsules.
While Catalent has been able to expand its facilities, there are hints the company may look to enter the M7A fray that’s changing the landscape of the pharmaceutical industry. BioPharma-Reporter hinted the company may be looking to add to its offerings through acquisitions.
In March Canada-based Portage Biotech partnered with Catalent to use that company’s Zydis Orally Disintegrating Tablet technology in the development of BHV-0223, the lead neuropsychiatric product of Portage subsidiary Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Limited.
Catalent’s Zydis technology is a freeze-dried, oral solid dosage form that disperses instantly in the mouth -- no water is required.
