Catalent Invests $175 Million to Expand Manufacturing Capabilities & Capacity


Catalent recently announced that it has commenced a $175 million project to expand its flagship US manufacturing facility for large scale oral dose forms in Winchester, KY. Two new buildings, expected to be completed by January 2024, will add 107,000 square feet to the site’s manufacturing footprint.

The expansion will broaden the site’s highly potent material handling capabilities and containment vault, provide additional laboratory space, and add further capacity for existing turnkey operations, including dual fill encapsulation and pan coating alongside a variety of packaging solutions and analytical services. When complete and fully operational, it is expected the expansions will create as many as 277 new jobs, adding to the existing workforce of over 650. These latest expansions follow a doubling of the site’s footprint, to 190,000 square feet in 2015, and a $40 million investment in 2019 that saw the installation of new equipment for stick pack dosage manufacturing, integrated packaging lines, as well as expanded roller compaction and fluid bed capacity.

“We are witnessing a broad increase in demand for manufacturing, and the nature of the development pipeline being strong in both oncology treatments and complex molecules, necessitates the expansion of specific capabilities in areas such as highly potent materials handling,” commented Aris Gennadios, PhD, President of Softgel & Oral Technologies at Catalent. “Our Winchester site has a rich history in the successful commercialization of new products, and this expansion is the latest in a series of strategic investments, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, to ensure that the current and future needs of our customers can be met.”

Opened in 1992, Catalent’s Winchester facility has evolved into one of the industry’s premier sites for complex oral drug formulation and manufacturing. The site has launched more than 150 new products into the market since its inception and produces over three-billion tablets and capsules annually.

 Catalent is the global leader in enabling pharma, biotech, and consumer health partners to optimize product development, launch, and full life-cycle supply for patients around the world. With broad and deep scale and expertise in development sciences, delivery technologies, and multi-modality manufacturing, Catalent is a preferred industry partner for personalized medicines, consumer health brand extensions, and blockbuster drugs. Catalent helps accelerate over 1,000 partner programs and launch over 150 new products every year. Its flexible manufacturing platforms at over 50 global sites supply over 70 billion doses of nearly 7,000 products to over 1,000 customers annually.

Catalent’s expert workforce exceeds 19,000, including more than 2,500 scientists and technicians. Headquartered in Somerset, NJ, the company generated $4 billion in revenue in its 2021 fiscal year. For more information, visit www.catalent.com.