Catalent Biologics and MGC Pharma Announce Partnership for Biomanufacturing in Asia

Catalent Pharma Solutions and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company (MGC) have entered into a partnership agreement to co-promote Catalent’s proprietary GPEx technology in the Asian market. MGC is a major chemical engineering company, and recently established a subsidiary, MGC Pharma Co., to provide contract development, and clinical and commercial manufacturing of biologics in Asia. Through the collaboration, MGC Pharma’s customers will benefit from GPEx technology’s production of stable and high yielding cell lines, while bringing their development programmes to market faster.

Under the agreement, Catalent will engineer the cell lines and carry out development, and MGC Pharma will provide Phase III and commercial manufacturing. In addition, MGC and MGC Pharma will be able to offer biosimilar cell lines produced using GPEx technology to pharmaceutical partners for further product development and commercialization.

“There are great synergies between MGC Pharma and Catalent in terms of technologies and business structure,” commented Masami Orisaku, President of MGC Pharma. “MGC and Catalent will complement each other in the growth of our biologics businesses and in supporting our customers’ requirements in the Asian market.”

Mike Jenkins, Vice President of Business Development, Catalent Biologics, Asia Pacific, added, “This agreement will allow Catalent to continue to grow its biologics development and manufacturing interests of multiple NBEs and biosimilars, particularly in the Asia Pacific market. The collaboration with MGC Pharma fits Catalent’s strategy for growth in what we consider to be a promising region.”

Tadahiro Matsumura, President of Catalent Japan commented: “We are very excited to offer not only reliable softgel business solutions but also superior biologics solutions to our customers in Asia. This collaboration reinforces our position as a leading supplier of advanced drug delivery technologies and development solutions.”