Catalent expanding Maryland gene therapy campus with $130M investment

Somerset-based drug delivery company Catalent has invested $130 million to bolster manufacturing capacity at its gene therapy campus in Maryland, it announced Wednesday.

The company said the site in Harmans will add five Phase III to commercial-scale manufacturing suites, bringing the two state-of-the-art facilities to a total of 15 such suites.

Catalent said 10 of the suites are expected to be qualified and operational by the first quarter of 2021, now that the first facility has been approved by the FDA for commercial manufacturing. The new building and its five suites are expected to be operational in the first half of 2022. The new building will also offer cold storage warehousing, office space and more.

“It is critical that we stay connected to the needs of our customers as they progress through the clinical pipeline,” Manja Boerman, president, cell & gene therapy, said in a prepared statement. “By increasing our late-stage manufacturing capacity at the Harmans campus, we will be able to meet demand through the medium term and take advantage of our shared resources, including the technical and manufacturing expertise that helped us reach the milestone of becoming an FDA-approved commercial partner.”

Catalent has five total gene therapy sites in Maryland.