WILMINGTON, DEL. — Biopharmaceutical giant Merck (NYSE: MRK) has broken ground on a $1 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Wilmington, about 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Known as Merck Wilmington Biotech, the 470,000-square-foot project will comprise laboratory, manufacturing and warehouse capabilities.
Merck says the center will enable the launch and commercial production of next-generation biologics and therapies. Notably, the facility will be the Rahway, N.J.-based company’s first domestic site for producing cancer treatment drug Keytruda.
Reuters reports that the Delaware plant is in effort to expand domestic production as Merck prepares to deal with President Trump’s tariffs. In its first-quarter financial results, Merck estimated that the impact of tariffs imposed so far would lead to additional costs of approximately $200 million for the company in general.
Located within the 164-acre, 14-building Chestnut Run Innovation & Science Park (CRISP), the new facility will help foster growth in Wilmington’s biotechnology sector, creating more than 500 full-time roles and roughly 4,000 construction jobs. The laboratory component is expected to be fully operational by 2028, with production of experimental drugs anticipated to start by 2030. Pennsylvania-based developer MRA Groups owns CRISP, which is in the midst of a large-scale repositioning, and MRA Group is also developing a 127-room Marriott-branded hotel within the property.
Merck Wilmington Biotech will be proximate to Delaware and Pennsylvania universities as well as Merck’s existing facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Brett Segal, Ryan Ade and Chad Orcutt of JLL arranged an undisclosed amount of construction financing for the development through JLL Securities LLC.
“The decision to build a new biologics facility in Wilmington demonstrates our commitment to advancing U.S. manufacturing and partnering in communities where our employees live and work,” says Sanat Chattopadhyay, executive vice president and president of Merck’s manufacturing division. “As a hub for life sciences, research-and-development and pharmaceutical manufacturing, CRISP offers unparalleled opportunities for future expansion.”
Since the advent of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Merck has allocated more than $12 billion to enhance its domestic manufacturing and research capabilities, with additional planned investments of more than $9 billion over the next four years. In March, the company completed a $1 billion facility to expand vaccine production capacity in Durham, N.C.
For more than 130 years, Merck has developed medicines and vaccines to treat diseases in both humans and animals. The company’s stock price opened at $85.46 per share Wednesday, April 30, down more than 30 percent from $129.22 one year ago.
— Kristin Harlow