Catalent put the finishing touches on its $30 million expansion project at its site in Limoges, France.
The 56,000-square-foot facility expansion is expected to generate an additional 80 jobs on top of the current staff of 170, the company said. The CDMO giant said the location will serve as its European center of excellence for formulation and drug product manufacturing in vials, syringes and cartridges.
The project added to the plant’s capacity for small-molecule injectable dosage form development. Also added was a new small- to midscale flexible filling line that can handle vials, syringes or cartridges under barrier isolator technology. Additional upgrades included analytical and quality control laboratories, supporting clinical packaging, cold storage and regulatory capabilities.
“This investment has transformed the Limoges site into a world-class facility to support the development of early phase and small-scale commercial biologic drugs, and offers customers integrated services to accelerate programs towards and through the clinic, and ultimately to market,” Mike Riley, Catalent’s president of biotherapeutics, said in a statement.
Like other large CDMOs, Catalent has been spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic to expand global manufacturing operations to meet demand for vaccines.
In January, the New Jersey-based company completed a $10 million expansion project that added large-scale isolator units to its Malvern, Pennsylvania, and Dartford, U.K., manufacturing facilities.
The completion of Catalent's expansion in France comes right after Sanofi recently pledged 935 million euros ($1.02 billion) to bankroll a "complete and autonomous value chain in mRNA technology" in the country.