CDMO giant Catalent completed expansion projects worth $10 million that added large-scale isolator units to its Malvern, Pennsylvania, and Dartford, U.K., manufacturing facilities.
With the new units, Catalent can provide clinical and commercial scale jet milling to be conducted under enhanced containment conditions, the company said. Micronizers, which are part of the new systems, will provide a greater degree of safety by eliminating the risk of dust explosion for compounds with low minimum ignition points.
Other features of the upgrades include continuous milling operations, clean-in-place automated washing systems and improved flexible sampling schemes that don’t need external equipment.
“Micronization is a well-established technology to help improve the solubility of oral drugs, and there continues to be a growing need for safe manufacturing and containment technologies required for the development of highly potent APIs,” James Walter, a Catalent vice president, said in a statement. “These expansions provide the increased capacity needed to meet current and future demand for high potent, high value micronization.”
Catalent, which acquired the Malvern facility from Micron Technologies in 2014, announced earlier this month that Alessandro Maselli will become chief executive in July. Maselli, Catalent’s current president and chief operations officer, will be taking over from John Chiminski, who will assume the title of executive chair of Catalent’s board of directors.
Catalent, like other large CDMOs, has flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic because of explosive growth fueled by the production of therapies to fight the virus. Catalent reported revenues of $4 billion in its fiscal year 2021, a 26% increase at constant currencies versus the previous year. The company has forecast revenue growth between 8% and 13% for 2022.