MSD buys Irish vaccines plant from WuXi for €500m
WuXi's Dundalk facility
MSD has expanded its presence in Ireland with an agreement to buy a vaccine manufacturing facility from Chinese biotech WuXi Biologics for around €500 million (around $520 million).
The plant in County Louth is a 15,520 sq m three-story vaccine manufacturing facility that covers drug substance manufacturing, product manufacturing, and quality control labs for the supply of vaccine products for the global market.
The plant currently employs approximately 200 people, and the acquisition will see MSD's headcount in Ireland rise above 3,000 and take its investment in the country above €3 billion in the last three years.
Last year, MSD – known as Merck & Co in the US and Canada – also announced a €1 billion investment programme at two other Irish sites in Carlow and Dunboyne, County Meath, according to the national inward investment agency IDA Ireland.
MSD and WuXi Biologics – which have been collaborating at Dundalk since 2019 – will now begin an official handover process that aims to be completed in the first half of 2025. Meanwhile, MSD has said it is planning to add about 1,000 jobs over the coming years across its eight locations in Ireland, including 150 additional jobs at the Dundalk facility.
The deal is yet another example of Ireland attracting major investment from big pharma groups across manufacturing and research.
Other recent announcements include a $2 billion spend by Eli Lilly on a new plant in Raheen, Limerick, that will be used to produce its new Alzheimer's therapy donanemab as well as other biologics, and AstraZeneca's recently opened, $360 million active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facility in Blanchardstown, Dublin.
"Our company's continued ambition to expand MSD's Irish footprint is a testament to the unique ecosystem around us, and in particular speaks to the passion, commitment, and talent of our existing 3,000-strong workforce and what they have been able to accomplish for our global network – from MSD Ireland to the world," said Samantha Humphreys, managing director of MSD Ireland Human Health.
The company currently operates five large-scale pharma manufacturing, research, and development sites across the country – in Ballydine, Brinny, Carlow, Dunboyne, and Dublin – along with a commercial site for human health and an animal health unit in Dublin.
For WuXi Biologics, the divestment comes as the company is facing the possibility of restrictions imposed by the BIOSECURE Act in the US, which - if enacted - would prohibit businesses from contracting with it and various other Chinese companies, including sister company WuXi AppTec, on national security grounds.
