Catalent has 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 24x7 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 875,000 square-foot facility in Bloomington has 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.