Catalent adds another foothold in new modality manufacturing via takeout of cell therapy provider MaSTherCell

Catalent is building out its manufacturing capacity for new modalities via the $315 million acquisition of cell therapy company MaSTherCell, less than a year after the CDMO spent more than $1 billion on a gene therapy manufacturing takeout.

The price Catalent Inc. (NYSE:CTLT) is paying for the Belgian company highlights the growing competition for manufacturing capacity in new modalities. The takeout price is nearly 16x MaSTherCell’s 2018 revenue of €17.4 million ($19.9 million). Catalent paid 6x for Paragon Bioservices Inc. when it acquired the Baltimore-based company for $1.2 billion last April, a few days after it had opened a new gene therapy manufacturing plant (see “$1.2 Billion Catalent-Paragon Deal Latest in Race to Lock Up Gene Therapy Manufacturing”)...