As Merck & Co. hunts for an ideal spot to set up a new commercial facility, Delaware is looking to bolster its odds with a cash sweetener.
Monday, Delaware’s 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 outside the city of Wilmington, multiple local news outlets reported.
A representative from the Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP) confirmed the grant’s approval in a Thursday email to Fierce Pharma. The DPP is an economic development organization that works on behalf of the state.
Separately, a Merck spokesperson verified that the company is “considering Delaware as a potential location to develop a new commercialization and launch facility.” The spokesperson did not comment further on Merck’s plans.
The Delaware decision is far from a done deal, with Merck still weighing other locations to set up its new manufacturing plant, the Delaware Business Times reported earlier this week.
“We are in the final stages of decision making,” Timothy Keppel, Merck’s executive director of manufacturing network strategy, told Delaware’s Council on Development Finance on Monday, as quoted by the publication. “This has been a competitive process, and [we] started with no limitations around the globe.”
Should the plan come to fruition, Merck will invest around $900 million in the 450,000-square-foot facility, which would include multiple buildings, labs, warehouses and production space, according to a company presentation seen by local news outlets.
The site, which Merck said it could get up and running by 2030, would also create 375 new jobs.
“[T]hat’s one of the reasons why we had been focused on Delaware and the growing biologics talent pool,” Keppel said Monday, according to local news service Town Square Delaware.
This isn’t the first time Delaware has used grants to entice biopharma outfits to bring their business to the First State.
Back 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, Delaware.
While recent proposed legislation like the Biosecure Act has made the prospect of working with Chinese contractors and service providers touchier in the U.S., construction of the 1.74 million-square-foot facility is still ongoing, the DPP’s representative said Thursday.
At the time, the STA grant represented the largest business investment by Delaware in roughly a decade. That distinction now goes to the award for Merck’s potential manufacturing site, the Delaware Business Times pointed out.
The site, if built, would become Merck’s first for human drugs in the state. The company’s animal health division already boasts operations in the town of Millsboro, Delaware.