EMD SERONO ANNOUNCES PLANNED INVESTMENT OF $50 MILLION IN RESEARCH CENTER IN MASSACHUSETTS
Merck Serono and its US affiliate EMD Serono, Inc., both part of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced a planned expansion of EMD Serono’s US presence with an anticipated investment of $50 million at its Billerica facility northwest of Boston, Massachusetts. The company anticipates that this investment will create more than 100 new jobs in Massachusetts.
The investment will support the construction of a center of excellence in discovery, creating critical mass in research with a common goal of finding new treatments for unmet medical needs.
“This announcement reflects Merck KGaA’s strong commitment to expand EMD
Serono and anchor our US operations in Massachusetts,” said Elmar Schnee, Member
of the Executive Board Merck KGaA and Head of Pharmaceuticals. “We recognize the
significant value of augmenting our research capabilities in Boston—a region with
tremendous life-sciences influence not only across the US, but also globally.”
Once complete, the new site will accommodate approximately 200 scientists with
expertise in cancer biology, cancer immunotherapy, oncogene signaling, manufacturing
cell lines, medicinal chemistry, molecular modeling, protein engineering, and
therapeutic antibodies, across the research areas of cancer and fertility, as well as
approximately 50 employees in Technical Operations who specialize in process
development and protein production.
The company’s protein production facility in Billerica, which manufactures products for
early stage clinical testing, is a significant reason why the site was selected for
expansion; the close proximity of protein production to research drives collaborative
interactions and supports the rapid transition from research to manufacturing.
“This investment demonstrates the value of our US operations as a crucial component
of the global organization’s long-term success,” says Fereydoun Firouz, CEO and
President of EMD Serono, Inc. “We are committed to growing our footprint in
Massachusetts and the US, as we fuel the future of the organization by expanding on
our discovery efforts and driving our pipeline forward, to ultimately make a difference in
patients’ lives.”
Construction at the new site will begin early next year and is expected to be complete
in 2010. Upon completion, the total square footage of the Billerica Campus will be
approximately 210,000 square feet, including more than 160,000 square feet of lab
space.
“We will harness the power of our scientific expertise and understanding of disease
biology, and leverage the significant amount of academic and healthcare resources
available to us in nearby Boston, to further strengthen our dedication to finding new
and innovative treatments that improve the quality of life for people living with serious
diseases,” says Bernhard Kirschbaum, head of global research for Merck Serono.
The US headquarters of EMD Serono will remain in Rockland. The company will
strengthen its leadership position in its current therapeutic areas of Neurodegenerative
Diseases and Endocrinology, and build the necessary infrastructure to support an
increase in US clinical trials, as well as commercial growth in new areas of expertise,
including cancer and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases.
Additionally, EMD Serono is one of the first biopharmaceutical companies in
Massachusetts to announce a significant investment in the Commonwealth since
Governor Deval Patrick proposed the Life Sciences Initiative in May 2007, a $1