The life science conglomerate Danaher Corporation may have an interest in a major name in US contract manufacturing.
A
report
from
Bloomberg
over the weekend said that Danaher has expressed some interest in acquiring New Jersey-based CDMO Catalent. People who have some knowledge of the deal told Bloomberg that they are not clear at this time how Catalent will move forward, if at all, and that the deal does not seem to be happening anytime soon.
“As a matter of policy, Catalent does not comment on market rumors and speculation,” a Catalent spokesperson emailed to
Endpoints News.
Endpoints also reached out to Danaher for more information but did not receive a response by press time.
However, the potential of this move sent shockwaves on the stock exchange today, catapulting Catalent’s stock price
$CTLT
up 20%. Danaher’s stock price
$DHR
fell by about 2%.
Danaher has been focused on M&A activity in the field for several decades and has brought in hundreds of businesses under its banner since 1984, according to its
website
.
One of Danaher’s major acquisitions in the pharma manufacturing market came in 2021 when it bought plasmid DNA, mRNA and protein producer Aldevron in a $9.6
billion
cash deal.
Catalent in the meantime has been focused on building out its capabilities. The CDMO announced in December of last year that it will be making a
$40 million
investment to build an analytical center in North Carolina along with a multimillion investment into one of its major manufacturing sites in
Indiana
. But, Catalent has not been averse to deals, as the company made a big move to acquire Bettera Holdings and four manufacturing sites in the US for
$1 billion
in 2021 to expand into softgel production.
The deal scene has been relatively quiet so far for manufacturing, with Charles River Laboratories’ $50 million buyout of SAMDI Tech at the end of January being one of the deals so far in 2023.