AsianScientist (Feb. 27, 2018) – Pharmaceutical industry giant Merck has announced an additional investment of €40 million to build a robust manufacturing and distribution platform in Asia over a span of two years. This investment follows Merck’s November 2016 announcement of its €80 million Life Science investment in Nantong, China.
“In biopharmaceutical research, time is of the essence,” said Dr. Udit Batra, member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. “Our investments in the important Asian markets of South Korea, India and China ensure that our customers have ready access to the products needed to develop new therapies and biosimilars that accelerate access to health for people everywhere.”
Part of the latest investment will go towards the development of a manufacturing and distribution center located in the Songdo district of Incheon, South Korea. Occupying a land area of 10,141 square meters, the new site is expected to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Another manufacturing and distribution center will be located in Mumbai, also expected to be completed in 2019. Occupying 10 acres, the site is more than 12,000 square meters in size, with added capacity to meet future growth, further improving inventory availability and reducing lead times.
Furthermore, Merck intends to accelerate its Mobius® single-use manufacturing to address the growing biopharmaceutical demand in China, which has a burgeoning biosimilar market and is fast becoming a biotech powerhouse. Single-use technologies provide increased flexibility and efficiency which are critical for biosimilar development and manufacturing. The site located in Wuxi will be ready in 2018, and is expected to reduce lead time by at least 50 percent.
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Source: Merck.
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