The New Jersey, US contractor announced its intention to buy Cook Pharmica on Tuesday, explaining the $950m (€794m) deal is designed to expand its biopharmaceutical manufacturing and bioanalysis capabilities.
A Catalent spokesman expanded on this, telling us “There are areas where Cook Pharmica brings additional capabilities, for example in handling liquid and lyophilized vials as well as syringes and cartridges, but Cook Pharmica is attractive for many reasons.”
He cited Cook’s facility in Bloomington, Indiana as key, explaining “its vial and pre-filled syringe lines are fully automated and meet the latest customer and regulatory needs.
“Its biomanufacturing operations are designed to handle a wide range of batch sizes too, similar to what we’ve been able to achieve in Madison, Wisconsin.”
The spokesman also said customer demand had played a part in driving the acquisition, adding that Cook “has the capabilities and capacity that biologics customers find attractive when choosing a partner.”
“From a capacity standpoint, Bloomington has available expansion space to efficiently support future growth” he said.
Catalent is also keen to take on contracts with existing Cook customers according to the spokesman.
He said: “Until the acquisition is finalised, we will continue to operate as separate businesses.
“Catalent Biologics will work with Cook Pharmica and its customers to maintain existing relationships and ensure minimal customer impact.”