After Cardinal Health Inc. announced it was hiring local executive George Barrett from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. last week, it was clear from Cardinal's Web site that it did not have as many operations in the Philadelphia area as it once did.
That's because last April Cardinal sold off its Pharmaceutical Technologies & Services business to the hedge fund Blackstone Group for $3.3 billion. That business had its roots in a Philadelphia company called PCI Services Inc. Cardinal acquired PCI for about $200 million in 1996 and proceeded to expand it in a series of other deals.
Now called Catalent Pharma Solutions Inc. and based in Somerset, N.J., the business has quite a footprint in the region. It has a 583,624-square-foot building involved in packaging services on Red Lion Road in Philadelphia. It has two similar operations in smaller facilities in Moorestown and Pennsauken. Cardinal still operates one of its 25 pharmaceutical distribution centers in Swedesboro.
