Novo’s proposed acquisition of Catalent, with the immediate goal of adding capacity for its weight-loss drugs, has rarely been out of the news, whilst a raft of expansions elsewhere has been announced at Thermo Fisher, Alcami, Lonza and Vetter, to list but a few. 

It doesn’t look like anything is changing...  

In the last week alone, Grand River announced its third world-class facility in five years, dedicating 50,000 sq. ft. to syringes and cartridge filling, and Sharp Services said it will expand its Pennsylvania site to add 157,500 sq. ft. and provide various services for vials, pre-filled syringes, and autoinjector/pens, serving the needs of both pharma and biotech companies. 

And a look back at the last year finds dozens of similar expansion stories, which build on the significant capacity increases made to meet demand for vaccines and treatments during the pandemic. 

Yet we are also seeing job cuts at some of the same companies, and at CDMOs providing similar capabilities and capacity. Given the nature of the sector’s work and the highly regulated environment, sure there is a better way than the boom-and-bust of apparently seismic demand shifts that avoids the need to let go of, then later hire and retrain semi-skilled and skilled employees?