Merck will sell its US contract development and manufacturing business for active ingredients to Swiss pharmaceutical company Lonza in a deal valued at a mid-hundreds-of-millions-of-euros sum. The transaction includes five sites and around 1,100 employees, and is expected to close in mid-2027, the companies said.
The facilities are in Carlsbad, California; Madison and Verona, Wisconsin; Indianapolis, Indiana; and St. Louis, Missouri. Contract development and manufacturing organizations help customers advance therapies from development through production.
Merck said it will continue serving pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers with a broad range of consumables, technologies and services after the sale. The company is reshaping its portfolio under chief executive Kai Beckmann, who has led the group since May, with a stronger focus on innovation-driven businesses.
Beckmann described the sale as another step in Merck’s medium- and long-term strategy. JPMorgan analyst Richard Vosser called it a logical move, saying the business lacked sufficient scale and was capital-intensive, while the transaction would allow Merck to focus on its core Life Science activities.
Merck agreed in June to acquire US analytical technology provider Bio-Techne for nearly €10 billion to strengthen its Life Science division. It also recently announced plans to buy UK biotechnology company Silence Therapeutics for around €1 billion to expand its business in rare diseases.
Lonza, headquartered in Basel, employs around 17,000 people. CEO Wolfgang Wienand said the acquisition would give customers access to a broader range of services and additional US manufacturing capacity, a market he described as important to the company.
Sources: Handelsblatt.