Catalent sells New Jersey plant to Belgian CDMO, plans moving HQ elsewhere

Novo Holdings is set to buy one less facility from Catalent as the manufacturer has sold a facility in New Jersey to a European CDMO. The sale also means Catalent is looking for a new corporate headquarters.

Ardena is acquiring a factory in Somerset, NJ, from Catalent to expand its late-stage clinical oral dosage services and to establish its manufacturing footprint in the US, the Belgian CDMO said on Monday.

The site also houses Catalent’s corporate headquarters, which will move to a new location in the future, Catalent said in a separate release. For now, its corporate headquarters will stay in Somerset, with the new location announced at a later date.

The deal is expected to close in early 2025 and Ardena will also take on the 200 employees working at the Catalent factory. No financial details were disclosed.

This deal comes as Novo Holdings is waiting for the Federal Trade Commission’s review of its $16.5 billion acquisition of Catalent, which was announced in February. Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called for the FTC to “carefully scrutinize” the Novo-Catalent deal over concerns Novo Nordisk will unfairly dominate the GLP-1 market. Novo Holdings would gain Catalent’s 50+ sites and then would sell three fill-finish factories to Novo Nordisk.

Jeremie Trochu

Ardena’s CEO Jeremie Trochu told Endpoints News on the sidelines of the Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients in Milan last week that it is a “very important strategic direction” for the company to establish itself in the US.

By nabbing its first US site, Ardena is positioning itself to meet the “growing” demand, the company said. Around 20% of Ardena’s clients are in the US, with around 70% in Europe, Trochu said. Clients want local production, to make business easier but also to improve security of supply chains, he added.

Ardena has contract manufacturing offerings across drug substances and API for early and late-stage clinical trials, as well as services in analytical development. The company is headquartered in Ghent, with two sites in the Netherlands and one in Spain and Sweden.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to correct Ardena’s site numbers.