Merck Spending $115 Million on Massachusetts Life Science Campus

The 280,000-square-foot building is slated to open next year.

Chris Newmarker

Merck KGaA's U.S. and Canadian life sciences business MilliporeSigma is creating a new LEED-certified 280,000-square-foot facility in Burlington, MA, that will service as a multi-use life science hub in the United States, the company announced Tuesday.

The Burlington campus will provide a customer collaboration lab and training center, as well as office space for 850 MilliporeSigma employees presently based in nearby Billerica, MA. It will include a new enhanced M Lab Collaboration Center that will replace the flagship M Lab presently in Billerica.

"This new and more expansive MilliporeSigma campus gives us a unique, multi-use life science hub in the United States--one that provides our employees and customers with a sustainable and collaborative working environment," MilliporeSigma CEO Udit Batra said in a news release. "We have a long history in the Commonwealth [of 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."

Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck KGaA (not to be confused with Merck & Co. in the U.S.) is mostly a pharmaceutical and biosimilars company. But its move to Massachusetts still highlights the state's importance as a life science hub, including in the medical device field.

Construction of the five-story $115 million building is slated for completion in the second half of 2017. The Gutierrez Co. is bulding the structure, which could be expanded another 70,000 square feet in the future.

MilliporeSigma also plans to keep its North American life science hub in St. Louis.

Merck's life science business, operating as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has 19,000 employees and 65 manufacturing sites around the world, and a 300,000-product portfolio.

Massachusetts is one of the top life sciences hubs in the United States, including in the medical device space. The Boston area has more than 15,000 medical device industry employees. Massachusetts pulled in more than half a billion dollars in medtech venture capital funding last year. 

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

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[Rendering of new Burlington, MA, facility courtesy of Merck.]