Merck KGaA is allocating over €300 million ($321.8 million) to build a new research building at its headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany to study technologies for its life science business.
By 2027, the 18,000-square-meter site will host 550 workers, who will drive investigations into manufacturing antibodies and mRNA applications like recombinant proteins and viral vectors, as well as finding improvements to the mRNA value chain, according to a Thursday press release.
The new build, to be named Advanced Research Center, will also bring in Merck KGaA’s research into raw materials, cell culture media, pharmaceutical formulation and purification, and analytical chromatography.
The company predicts that, in the next 10 years, a fifth of its life science business sales from new products will be born from its Darmstadt headquarters. The research center is the latest build as part of its plan to invest €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) in its headquarters by 2025, as first announced in March 2019.
Including today’s announcement, Merck KGaA has made eight investment rounds so far totaling up to €916.6 million ($983 million). Notably, the company pumped €160 million ($159.3 million) into a new building called the Launch and Technology Center in September 2022, and €270 million ($290 million) into the Translational Science Center and a learning center in July 2021.
Last month, Merck KGaA said it is investing at least €300 million ($328 million) into a new biologics facility in South Korea.