The acquisition of a local company by an out-of-town purchaser hasn't always ended well for Greater Baltimore's economy.

But that hasn't been the case following the $1.2 billion purchase of Maryland's Paragon Bioservices Inc. by New Jersey drug maker Catalent Inc. The deal closed May 20, 2019, and since then Paragon has continued to grow at a fast clip. As of late last year, the company had grown to 750 people, up from the 400 it had when the acquisition was announced in April 2019.

Paragon specializes in the development and manufacturing of vaccines and gene therapies, particularly for rare diseases or diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 patients at a given time. The company was founded in Baltimore more than 30 years ago.

At the time the deal closed, Catalent employed more than 11,000 people, including over 1,800 scientists, at more than 30 facilities across five continents, and generated approximately $2.5 billion in annual revenue.

Since then, Paragon has been bulking up at both its research and development space in the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore and in its year-old, 150,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility in Anne Arundel County.

Read the full story from the Baltimore Business Journal.