Catalent to establish new clinical GMP manufacturing and distribution hub to support clinical studies

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Catalent to establish new clinical GMP manufacturing and distribution hub. (Credit: PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay)

US-based clinical supply services firm Catalent has signed an agreement with Teva-Takeda Pharmaceuticals to acquire the latter’s clinical packaging facility in Minakuchi, located in the Shiga prefecture of Japan.

The acquisition is expected to help Catalent in establishing new clinical GMP manufacturing and distribution hub to support clinical studies.

Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. The transaction is scheduled for completion on 01 July 2020.

The 60,000ft² facility, which is expected to be the company’s largest in Asia Pacific clinical supply network, will be operated together with Catalent’s existing clinical supply facility at Kakegawa, Japan.

Serving local customers as well as global biotech and pharmaceutical companies, the facility will provide customers with access to Catalent’s FastChain demand-led supply services, and primary and secondary packaging capabilities.

Catalent’s new facility to offer range of temperature options for storage and distribution

In addition, the facility will offer a range of temperature options for storage and distribution, as well as clinical returns and destruction services.

Catalent Clinical Supply Services president Ricci Whitlow said: “This new facility provides much-needed capacity as we look to expand our capabilities across the Asia-Pacific region, and follows on from recent expansions and investments we have made in our clinical supply business in China and Singapore.

“Our strategy has been to build expertise and capacity in this region as demand for local clinical supply services increases, to provide support to customers with global programs, and to meet the growing demand in biologics and cell and gene therapy studies.”

In April this year, Catalent announced the completion of the $14m commercial packaging expansion at its Bloomington facility in Indiana, US, to enhance the biologics packaging capabilities and capacity at the facility.

With the latest expansion, the company has added 15,000ft² of packaging infrastructure to the biologics and sterile manufacturing facility.