The contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) will continue to operate Pharmapak Technologies under its own brand and will retain the approximately 100 employees at the site in Dee Why, New South Wales.
According to the company, the deal – financial details of which have not been divulged – will provide regional support for Catalent’s manufacturing facility in Braeside, Victoria, which makes oral dose softgels capsules for the Asia-Pacific market.
"There is significant demand from our customers in Asia for integrated solutions that include packaging as well," Elliott Berger, VP of Global Marketing & Strategy told Outsourcing-Pharma.com. "The Pharmapak acquisition presented a unique opportunity to provide a full set of packaging solutions and added capacity to our customers across Asia Pacific quickly, by leveraging an established leader in this segment."
He added Pharmapak would continue to provide a full array of packaging services to its current customers on top of providing services to support Catalent's own clients.
The acquisition of a pharma packaging business comes as somewhat of a turnaround following Catalent’s divestiture of its US commercial packaging business to Frazier Healthcare in 2012.
At the time, a Catalent spokesperson told this publication the firm was exiting the packaging game in favour of “areas where we have leading expertise, capabilities and position,” specifically advanced drug delivery technologies.
However, Berger told this publication Catalent continues to invest in providing integrated solutions for its clients:
"Many Catalent sites, including Kansas City and Woodstock in US and Swindon, Aprilia and Schorndorf in Europe, provide packaging options as a part of an integrated solution for customers. Catalent remains committed to meeting the evolving needs of customers and has made significant investments across the globe accordingly. Examples include site expansions such as the coating and packaging solutions added in Eberbach, Germany and Zydis Fast Dissolve development laboratory in Kakegawa, Japan, and investments in new sites such as our Clinical Supply Services facility in Shanghai, China."