Catalent Signs Agreement With Johnson & Johnson to be US Manufacturing Partner for Lead COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

Catalent, Inc. recently announced a collaboration with the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, whereby Catalent’s Biologics business unit will accelerate availability of manufacturing capacity and prepare for large-scale commercial manufacturing of Johnson & Johnson’s lead vaccine candidate for COVID-19 at its facility in Bloomington, Indiana.

The collaboration commits joint investment to accelerate rapid scale-up of segregated manufacturing capacity over the coming months to support dedicated production of Johnson & Johnson’s investigational vaccine candidate. Catalent plans to hire approximately 300 additional employees at the site for this program starting in July 2020 to meet operational readiness and 24×7 manufacturing schedules by January 2021.

“Catalent is proud to collaborate with Johnson & Johnson in its efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and save lives,” said John Chiminski, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Catalent. “Both organizations have committed to ambitious goals and are executing innovative strategies to meet the forecasted demand on an unprecedented timeline. We value the trust that Johnson & Johnson has placed in us regarding this important, time-sensitive program and will apply our extensive experience in quickly scaling up manufacturing operations for late-stage and commercial products.”

Catalent’s state-of-the-art 875,000-sq-ft facility in Bloomington has deep expertise in sterile formulation, with drug substance development and manufacturing and drug product fill/finish capacity across liquid and lyophilized vials, prefilled syringes, and cartridges as well as primary and secondary packaging. Scale-up in production will include the use of two new high-speed machines, including an Optima vial filling line and a Dividella NeoTOP 1604 top-load cartoner. In addition to the Bloomington facility, the Catalent Biologics network has facilities in Brussels, Belgium and Anagni, Italy that perform sterile drug product manufacturing and packaging, and additional facilities in the United States and Europe for manufacturing proteins, viral vectors for gene therapies, and cell therapies, as well as pre-filled syringe manufacture and bioanalytics.

For more information about Catalent’s Bloomington facility, visit https://biologics.catalent.com/our-locations/north-america/bloomington-usa/.

Catalent Biologics is a global leader in development, manufacturing and analytical services for new biological entities, cell and gene therapies, biosimilars, sterile injectables, and antibody-drug conjugates. With over 20 years of proven expertise, Catalent Biologics has worked with 600+ mAbs and 80+ proteins, produced 13 biopharmaceutical drugs using GPEx^® cell line development technology, and 35+ commercially approved products. Catalent has recently acquired MaSTherCell, a technology-focused cell therapy development and manufacturing partner with expertise in autologous and allogeneic cell therapy that complements Catalent’s industry-leading expertise and commercial success in gene therapy development, manufacturing and adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector production. Together, Paragon Gene Therapy and MaSTherCell have produced over 100 GMP batches across 60+ clinical and commercial programs. For more information on Catalent Biologics, visit www.catalent.com/biologics.

Catalent is the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies, development, and manufacturing solutions for drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies, and consumer health products. With over 85 years serving the industry, Catalent has proven expertise in bringing more customer products to market faster, enhancing product performance and ensuring reliable global clinical and commercial product supply. Catalent employs over 13,500 people, including over 2,400 scientists and technicians, at more than 40 facilities, and in fiscal year 2019 generated over $2.5 billion in annual revenue. Catalent is headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. For more information, visit www.catalent.com.