US drug developer Catalent has announced plans to expand its integrated turnkey softgel capabilities at Eberbach, Germany, at a cost of $14 million up to 2020. The expansion includes two new encapsulation lines using the company’s proprietary Vegicaps technology.

Catalent said the expansion is being driven in particular by increased global demand for animal-free consumer health products. Expanded facilities for these products are planned to be in the market by September 2019.  The investment also includes new printing technology, a state-of-the-art vision inspection system, expansion of softgel coating capabilities and additional packaging capacity.

The Eberbach site, Catalent’s biggest softgel development and manufacturing facility in Europe with a capacity of more than 10 billion capsules per year, is also adding 10% to the workforce  across operations, quality control and related support functions.

Raoul Bernhardt, general manager of the site, said the investment reflects the importance of Eberbach and will enable the company to provide its customers with increased volumes and turnkey services.

Expanded several times – the last time in 2015 – the German facility offers integrated softgel manufacturing services, which the CMDO said simplify supply chain management and deliver products faster to market. 

Along with prescription and OTC drugs, nutritional supplements, medical devices and animal health products, Eberbach also handles highly potent and cytotoxic compounds within an isolated, self-contained cytotoxic suite, Catalent said.