Seven weeks after opening a new $1 billion vaccine manufacturing facility in North Carolina, Merck has revealed that it is breaking ground on another $1 billion plant—this one in Wilmington, Delaware.
The New Jersey company will build a 470,000-square-foot commercial production facility, which will make biologics and become the “future U.S. home” for its megablockbuster cancer treatment Keytruda, Merck said in its announcement.
With the Trump administration threating tariffs on imported products—and specifically targeting pharmaceuticals that are made overseas—this is yet another initiative from a Big Pharma to manufacture drugs in the U.S.
Merck is particularly exposed to the tariff threat, as much of its production of Keytruda takes place at facilities in Ireland and Singapore, in addition to its arrangements with contract manufacturers. Last year, Keytruda generated sales of $29.5 billion, accounting for 46% of the company’s revenue of $64.2 billion.
Last week, in reporting quarterly earnings, Merck said that it has included, in its 2025 revenue projection, a $200 million hit to account for tariffs.
The planned facility in Delaware "represents our continued commitment to growing our investments in U.S. manufacturing and has the potential to create thousands of high-paying American jobs while ensuring that we can produce and distribute products close to patients right here in the U.S.,” Merck CEO Robert Davis said in a release on Tuesday.
Since 2017, Merck has allocated more than $12 billion to bolster its U.S. manufacturing and research capabilities, the company said. It has planned an additional $9 billion in investments over the next four years, as well.
The company has dubbed the Delaware facility “Merck Wilmington Biotech,” and it will include laboratory, manufacturing and warehouse capabilities. In addition to Keytruda, it also will produce antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and other “next-generation” drugs, the company said. Merck added that it is planning further expansion beyond the initial investment at the site “to continue to serve our growing biologics pipeline.”
Merck plans to employ more than 500 people at the facility and added that construction of the plant will create more than 4,000 jobs. The lab component of the site will be fully operational by 2028, with production of compounds to begin by 2030, Merck said.
Further expansion of the complex could add 1,500 full-time jobs and 26,000 construction roles, Merck projects.
The announcement didn’t come as a surprise. Two months ago, the Delaware state investment board approved a $30.2 million grant to Merck, contingent on the company’s decision to set up operations at the Chestnut Run Innovation & Science Park (CRISP), west of downtown Wilmington.
Delaware has been aggressive in pursuing business from life science companies. In 2021, the state awarded a $19 million grant to STA Pharmaceuticals—the U.S. affiliate of China’s WuXi AppTec—to support the company’s plan to build a sprawling manufacturing campus in Middletown.
Merck’s announcement comes less than two months after the company opened a new $1 billion, 225,000-square-foot manufacturing plant slated to produce bulk substance for its HPV vaccine Gardasil. Merck built the new plant on a 262-acre campus it has occupied since 2004, where the pharma giant produces a variety of vaccines.
Merck is among several pharma powerhouses that have revealed commitments to invest in the U.S. Last week, Roche revealed a $50 billion plan centered on bolstering its operations in the U.S. Other biopharma companies such as Johnson & Johnson ($55 billion), Eli Lilly ($27 billion) and Novartis ($23 billion) have recently revealed large outlays designed to, as J&J put it, “support American jobs.”