Merck is investing $1 billion to build a U.S. plant in Delaware, in a show of its commitment to domestic manufacturing.
The move comes amid plans by President Trump to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals, which would include taxes on imported ingredients used in the making of such medicines.
The drug maker on Tuesday announced a new 470,000-square-foot facility in Wilmington, Delaware, where it will make Keytruda, the company’s immunotherapy treatment for different cancers. The plant will be Merck’s first U.S. facility dedicated to making Keytruda for U.S. patients, the company said.
“This is part of a significant investment to not only bring the world’s best-selling medicine closer to the American patients who rely on it, but to also establish a home for our biologics portfolio of products serving U.S. patients,” Merck said in a statement Tuesday.
The new site will spur growth in Wilmington’s biotechnology sector, creating more than 500 full-time jobs, and roughly 4,000 construction jobs, the company said. The Wilmington lab is expected to be functional by 2028.
“The Merck Wilmington Biotech site represents our continued commitment to growing our investments in U.S. manufacturing and has the potential to create thousands of high-paying American jobs while ensuring that we can produce and distribute products close to patients right here in the U.S.,” Merck chairman and CEO Robert M. Davis said in a statement.
Since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Merck has allocated more than $12 billion toward its domestic manufacturing footprint.
“We are committed to continuing our efforts to stimulate economic growth in the U.S., allowing for the domestic production and distribution of medicines and vaccines to patients here and around the world,” the company said.
A long list of American corporations have announced new investments in U.S. manufacturing under Mr. Trump’s broad-based tariff program. Computing giant IBM this week pledged to spend $150 billion on U.S. manufacturing capabilities to “fuel the economy.”
While not all of the companies with plans to grow their U.S. production facilities have cited Mr. Trump’s tariffs as the motivating factor, the White House has touted such moves as furthering Mr. Trump’s goal of reshoring manufacturing and stoking job-creation on home soil.
