Catalent opens second clinical supply facility in Shanghai

With drug development among both Chinese and Western biotechs and drugmakers escalating rapidly, Catalent has doubled down on its clinical supply capabilities in Shanghai.

The Somerset, New Jersey-based company has opened a new 30,000-square-foot clinical supply facility outside the free trade zone in Tangzhen, near Catalent’s existing Waigaoqiao free trade zone site and China’s Zhangjiang Pharma Valley area.

The facility, which will employ up to 100 workers, has capabilities to provide supply, secondary packaging, clinical storage and local distribution, as well as clinical returns and destruction services, the company said.

Roel de Nobel, VP of global operations for Catalent Clinical Supply Services, said in a statement that “having facilities both inside and outside” the free trade zone gives some flexibility to the growing numbers of drug developers in the region.

Catalent also has recently made investments in clinical supply manufacturing in Singapore and Japan.  

There have been extensive drug manufacturing investments in and around China as that country aggressively works to bring new generation drugs to consumers. Last fall, Rockville, Maryland-based CASI announced it was building a new manufacturing site at the Wuxi Huishan Economic Development Zone in Jiangsu Province, China.

CASI, which has focused much of its drug development efforts there, last year bought from Sandoz four pipeline ANDAs that are pending FDA approval. Among those is entecavir, an antiviral treatment for hepatitis B, which is a significant problem in China.