2022 Category Winners for Social Impact: Catalent

Given the unique challenges surrounding the COVID – 19 Pandemic, there are two projects the judges are recognizing in the category of Social Impact. Under normal circumstances, projects of this type are challenging. However, the global public health driver to execute these projects in record time, and deliver commercially approved vaccines, in large volumes, was unprecedented and therefore deserves recognition for Social Impact.

Catalent

Location: Bloomington, Indiana
Project: Project Mercury

Catalent is the leading global provider of development sciences and manufacturing platforms for medicines, including biotherapeutics, cell and gene therapies, and consumer health products. With almost 90 years of serving the industry, Catalent has proven expertise in bringing more customer products to market faster, enhancing product performance, and ensuring reliable global clinical and commercial product supply. Catalent’s workforce exceeds 17,000 people, including more than 2,500 scientists and technicians, at more than 50 facilities on four continents, and in the fiscal year 2021, it generated $4 billion in annual revenue. Catalent is headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey.

Catalent

Catalent’s Project Mercury was delivered in the face of the global pandemic. With an unknown manufacturing process for a vaccine candidate under development, the team pivoted on existing projects to ensure success, adding 40% more scope including secondary packaging and inspection. The project added 40,000 sq ft to cover the most stringent of the unknown needs of the process, reducing the risk to supply. The project team also cut six months off their schedule. The team beat the clock while managing the complexities of execution within the COVID-19 restricted environment and delivered the needed capacity to meet important pandemic demands.

From March 2020 onwards, the constant threat of the COVID-19 virus hung over the entire project. Therefore, Catalent knew they needed to go beyond masks, hand sanitizer, and mobile hand washing stations to keep staff safe. As soon as COVID-19 made itself known as a threat, they brought in a consultant to advise them on infection control measures.

Catalent kept workers safe by:

Staggering lunchtimes
Mandating masks
Monitoring exposures and tracing contacts
Arranging testing as needed
Cleaning common areas 4x/day
Fogging offices daily
Hiring safety enforcement personnel

Catalent also included three major elements of sustainability into their plans for Project Mercury: People, Planet, and Profits. This included the following:

Installing low flow plumbing fixtures
Selecting environmentally friendly refrigerant
Conserved energy by 14% through the use of LED Lights, occupancy sensors, and efficient heating and cooling equipment
Exceeded the LEED ventilation systems code by 30%
Selected 22 products with Environment Declarations
Successfully implemented an IAQ Air Quality Management Plan

This project is an example of a socially responsible response to an urgent public health need and therefore the FOYA Judges deemed them one of the 2022 category winners for Social Impact.

Supply Partners and Key Participants:

Manufacturer/Owner Name: Catalent, Inc.
Engineer/Architect (A&E):

CRB
Bledsoe Riggert Cooper James
Silver Creek Engineering, Inc.

Construction Manager: CRB Builders, LLC
Structural Steel Subcontractor: Steel Supply & Engineering
Concrete & Site Subcontractor: Weddle Bros. Building Group, LLC
Electrical Subcontractor:

Cassady-PayneCrest Joint Venture, LLC
ERMCO, Inc.

Piping Subcontractor:

Freitag-Weinhardt, Inc.
Harrell-Fish, Inc.

Interior Fit-Out Subcontractor: Taylor Bros. Construction, Inc.
Resinous Epoxy Flooring Subcontractor: Cornerstone Industries Corp.
HVAC Subcontractor: Poynter Sheet Metal
Automation and Control Suppliers: