 "Merck's Carlsbad (California) facility")
Merck, the German science and technology company, plans to invest $ 115 million (Euro 104 million) in a new campus in Burlington (Massachusetts, USA) that will serve as a major hub for its North American life science business. The 280,000-square-foot facility will include a customer collaboration laboratory and training center as well as office space.
“This new and more expansive Merck campus gives us a unique, multi-use life science hub in the US - one that provides our employees and customers with a sustainable and collaborative working environment. We have a long history in Massachusetts, and as a global leader in life science, we are committed to strengthening our presence in one of the most important science and technology hubs in the world,” said Udit Batra, member of the Merck executive board and CEO, Life Science.
The campus will serve as a premier global customer destination, housing both a customer service and call center and an M Lab Collaboration Center - a state-of-the-art, shared, exploratory environment where the company’s scientists and engineers work together with customers to help solve their toughest life science challenges. The M Lab Collaboration Center will be one of nine centers worldwide created specifically for collaboration, where hands-on training, customer experiments and application troubleshooting take place in a non-GMP environment. Other locations will include Brazil, China, France, India, Singapore and South Korea. This new enhanced M Lab center in Burlington (Massachusetts) will replace the flagship M Lab at the company’s Billerica (Massachusetts) facility.
“For nearly a decade, Merck has built a significant presence in Massachusetts and we are extremely pleased to support their expansion in Burlington through the MassWorks Infrastructure Program,” said Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. “Building long-lasting public-private partnerships is vital to growing our economy, and the Merck campus represents significant investment and confidence in our shared future as a global life science center.”
Merck’s 850 full-time Billerica-based life science employees will relocate to the new campus when construction is complete in the second half of 2017.
The $115 million building will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified – the rating system that is the most widely used third-party verification for green construction, certifying buildings that promote sustainability, resource conservation and human health.
