Catalent Pharma Solutions today announced that it has made two senior appointments to support its recently established joint ventures in China for its Softgel Technologies and Clinical Supply Solutions (CSS) businesses. Dr. Weiyan "Jackson" Zhu has joined as Catalent's Country General Manager for China, while Yufeng (Paul) Cao becomes the new Site Operations Director, for the 31,000 sq ft Catalent (Shanghai) Clinical Trial Supplies facility, which is currently under construction. Dr. Zhu and Mr. Cao will both be based in Shanghai.

Dr. Zhu will play a pivotal role in Catalent's China growth strategy, focusing on business development and government agency interaction. He will also liaise with Catalent's local teams, which are currently being put in place, to assist with the startup of the company's new operations.

He joins Catalent following a long tenure at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he had the distinction of being the company's first, mainland China hire in its 120 year history.

In the second appointment, Mr. Cao will have overall day-to-day responsibility for Catalent and ShangPharma's China Joint Venture business and will be in charge of establishing the new Shanghai clinical trial operation. He will lead Catalent's local China CSS team to complete the site construction and launch operations by late summer 2013. Among his responsibilities, Mr. Cao will be in charge of developing the supply chain for the CSS operation and developing a customer service oriented team.

Prior to joining Catalent, Mr. Cao was most recently the General Manager for Fisher Clinical Service (Beijing, China).