April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Global pharma firm Merck said on Sept. 26 that it has opened its first end-to-end drug development center outside Europe in Shanghai, China, to provide a full range of services.

The facility, BioReliance End-to-End Biodevelopment Center, will offer cell line development, upstream and downstream process development and non-Good Manufacturing Practice clinical production.

“Our new center will host small-scale drug manufacturers working on early-phase clinical trials,” said Udit Batra, board member and CEO of Merck Life Science.

“Merck has 30 years of process development experience and a track record of delivering robust clinical production process and clinical material within nine to 12 months. We look forward to advancing scientific discovery and innovation in China and beyond.”

The Shanghai center is designed to meet the specific needs of customers in the Asia-Pacific region. Staffed by local process scientists and engineers, it will provide an integrated suite of services for biopharma companies in China and across APAC to accelerate clinical drug development from molecule to commercial production.

This new investment in China marks “another milestone for Merck in one of Asia’s most dynamic biotech markets,” the company said.

In November 2016, Merck announced a 250 million euro (US$296.38 million) production value chain investment in Nantong, dedicated to both the production of pharmaceuticals on China’s Essential Drug List and the manufacturing of a range of innovative products and services for the pharma, biopharma and life sciences industries.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)