Catalent has appointed Nakaya “Nick” Matsumaru as general manager of its new clinical packaging facility in Minakuchi, located in the Shiga prefecture of Japan.
 
Reporting to Roel de Nobel, Catalent’s vice president of operations for Europe and Asia-Pacific, Matsumaru joins the company from SymBio Pharmaceuticals Ltd, where he held the role of senior director Supply Chain & Quality Assurance. Prior to this, he spent four years in vice president, executive officer and head of operations posts with AstraZeneca, and seven years in Japan-based supply chain management with Johnson & Johnson and Janssen. He holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Keio University in Tokyo.
 
“We are pleased to welcome Nick to head our clinical supplies business at our new facility in Shiga, which in partnership with our existing Japanese facility in Kakegawa, will provide flexible clinical supply solutions to customers in Japan and global biotech and pharmaceutical companies,” commented de Nobel.
 
He added, “Nick brings a great deal of experience, and will play an important role in the ongoing expansion of Catalent’s Asia-Pacific network and ensuring that customers’ clinical trials continue to be well-served across the region, and worldwide.”
 
Catalent announced it had completed the acquisition of the 60,000-square-foot facility in Shiga from Teva-Takeda Pharmaceuticals in July 2020. The facility is the latest in Catalent’s expanding Asia-Pacific clinical supplies network, and alongside the existing Japanese facility in Kakegawa, the company’s two sites in China and one in Singapore, will offer extensive services including access to primary and secondary packaging capabilities, Catalent’s FastChain demand-led supply services, a range of temperature options for storage and distribution, as well as clinical returns and destruction services.