Merck is selling its US contract development and manufacturing business for active pharmaceutical ingredients to Swiss company Lonza for a mid-hundreds-of-millions-euro sum. The deal covers five sites and around 1,100 employees, according to the companies.
The facilities are in Carlsbad, California; Madison and Verona, Wisconsin; Indianapolis, Indiana; and St. Louis, Missouri. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2027. Merck shares fell nearly 1.5% in Frankfurt after the announcement.
The CDMO business helps customers advance therapies from development through production. Merck said it will continue supporting pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers with a broad range of consumables, technologies and services after the sale.
The divestment is part of Merck’s portfolio realignment under CEO Kai Beckmann, who has led the company since May. Beckmann said the announcement marks another step in the company’s medium- and long-term strategy to focus more strongly on innovation-driven businesses.
JPMorgan analyst Richard Vosser described the sale as a logical move, saying the business lacked sufficient scale and was capital-intensive. In his view, the transaction will allow Merck to concentrate on its core Life Science activities.
Merck agreed in June to acquire US analytical technologies provider Bio-Techne for nearly €10 billion to strengthen its laboratory business. The company also recently announced plans to acquire British biotech firm Silence Therapeutics for around €1 billion, with the aim of expanding its rare-disease business.
Lonza, headquartered in Basel, employs around 17,000 people. CEO Wolfgang Wienand said integrating Merck’s CDMO operations would give customers access to a broader range of services and additional US production capacity, in a market important to Lonza.
Sources: Handelsblatt.