Catalent Adding Hundreds of Jobs in Bloomington
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowNew Jersey-based Catalent Inc. (NYSE: CTLT) is continuing to grow the workforce at its facility in Bloomington. The company plans to add between 500 and 600 jobs in Monroe County in response to growing demand for the pharmaceutical, biologics and other health products made at the 1 million-square-foot facility, including the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. Arturo Lopez, senior director of human resources at Catalent, says the company has invested more than $250 million in Bloomington since 2019 and has doubled its workforce since the pandemic began.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Lopez said demand for the COVID vaccines is one of the main drivers for the expansion, but not the only one.
“We provide drug development and manufacturing solutions for many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and they continue developing new products,” said Lopez. “So, there’s a large pipeline of products coming out of these companies and we partner with them. But certainly, COVID has been a big driver and big reason why we have increased our capacity.”
Lopez says Catalent has delivered about 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines and related treatments this year alone. More than 300 million of those doses have been manufactured in the Bloomington facility.
Catalent will next week host a pair of hiring events at the Monroe Convention Center in Bloomington to try and fill as many of the open positions as possible. The events will take place October 12 from 3-7 p.m. and October 13 from 12-7 p.m.
Denis Johnson, general manager of the Bloomington plant, told Inside INdiana Business in May that the facility employed more 2,500 workers. Lopez says that number has since grown to more than 3,500 and the company is still looking to add hundreds more.
“Most of those positions are manufacturing operators, but we have process engineers, supervisors, scientists, quality assurance/quality control managers, validations, and even a few director roles open,” he said. “So, we have jobs across the board.”
Lopez says Catalent has been well prepared to expand its services, especially as the pandemic has continued.
“We have developed new technologies. We have expertise and unparalleled capacity to provide a kind of one-stop shop to our customers where we help through the development, the production, packaging and delivery of those treatments. So, I think that’s what has positioned us very uniquely in this industry to help all these different pharma companies who came to us because we are more efficient and better equipped to do those things for them.”
You can learn more about the October 12 hiring event here and the October 13 event by clicking here.
Lopez says the demand for the COVID vaccines is one of the main drivers for the expansion, but not the only one.