Catalent to Acquire Paragon Bioservices for $1.2B, Expanding #Gene_Therapy Capabilities

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Catalent to Acquire Paragon Bioservices for $1.2B, Expanding Gene Therapy Capabilities

Catalent said today it has agreed to acquire Paragon Bioservices for $1.2 billion cash, in a deal designed to expand the buyer’s capabilities into the gene therapy field with a leading developer and manufacturer of viral vectors.

Based at University of Maryland (UM) BioPark in Baltimore, on the academic medical center campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), private equity-backed Paragon is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on gene therapies delivered via adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors, as well as next-generation vaccines, oncology immunotherapies (oncolytic viruses), and other complex biologics.

According to Paragon’s website, 50% of its current contracts are for gene therapy work. Paragon says it has helped develop and manufacture more than 50 different biotherapeutics and vaccines with its clients over the past 25 years.

Both companies have been in expansion mode. On Thursday, Paragon officially marked the opening of a new 200,000-square-foot facility in Harmans, Anne Arundel County, near Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport. That facility—equipped with several 500 L and 2000 L single-use bioreactors for clinical through commercial material production—is expected to boost Paragon’s workforce to more than 500 people by year’s end, including the 350+ now based at UM BioPark.

A day earlier, Catalent held a ceremony marking the completion of a new 30,000-square-foot clinical supply facility in Shanghai. The new facility, expected to employ up to 100 people, offers clinical supply services including FastChain® demand-led supply, secondary packaging, clinical storage, and local distribution, as well as clinical returns and destruction services. The facility is located outside the free trade zone (FTZ) in Tangzhen, near Catalent’s existing Waigaoqiao FTZ site and China’s Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone, dubbed “Medicine Valley” by authorities since biopharma is among its pillar industries.