“We now expect, particularly in the light of the need to produce vaccine booster shots and address the growth in variant forms, that this revenue will have a multi-year duration,” said Thomas Castellano, senior vice president and CFO, Catalent, on a conference call yesterday with analysts, following the release of the CDMO’s fourth quarter 2021 financial results.
The biologics segment was again the top contributor to Catalent’s financial performance with organic revenue growth of 66% and segment EBITDA more than doubling from the fourth quarter of last year.
The robust organic growth in the biologics segment in the quarter was driven by high demand for drug product, drug substance and viral vector manufacturing along with bioanalytical services, said Castellano. “The increase was primarily driven by COVID-19 related projects.”
In fiscal 2022, Catalent expects the biologics division to continue to grow net revenue at a double-digit pace.
Vaccines
Single doses or lower volume formats in the COVID-19 vaccine space will also support the CDMO’s growth, analysts on that call were told.
“We’re also seeing a change in formats… fewer doses per vial. We’re seeing a push toward pre-filled syringes… leading to increasing volumes for Catalent,” said John Chiminski, chair and CEO, Catalent, on the call.
He said its Anagni facility in Italy has been a marquee site for European COVID-19 vaccine efforts. “The team has really delivered flawlessly, literally more than 100 million vaccine doses have come out of there.”