The expansion, which will create between 150 and 180 new jobs, will add bulk vaccine production capacity, cold store warehousing space and administrative offices. Merck plans to complete the expansion by 2010 but will begin using the facility’s existing production capacity early next year.
The facility will manufacture Merck’s measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and chickenpox vaccines, as well as its Zostavax shingles vaccine, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May last year
Plant manager John Wagner said that the additional manufacturing capacity “will further position the Durham facility to more effectively support Merck’s growing global vaccine business.”
Prior to the Durham announcement Merck’s UK subsidiary, MSD, unveiled detailed plans for its €200m vaccines plant in Carlow, Ireland. The company said that, when construction is completed in 2011, the facility “will play a central role” in its global operations and will employ around 170 highly-skilled manufacturing staff.
The news will be seen as a positive move for Merck’s global vaccine operations following the FDA’s criticism of manufacturing operations at the firm’s main production plant in West Point, Pennsylvania.
Booming global vaccines sector
In the last few months several pharmaceutical players have sought to strengthen their positions in the global vaccines market, which a recent report by BCC Research predicted would grow nearly 11 per cent a year and reach a value of $34bn by 2013.
In June for example, Sanofi-Aventis said it would invest up to $6.25bn to expand its vaccine production capacity between now and 2015, while prior to that Canada’s Microbix unveiled plans to construct a $198m manufacturing plant in Hunan, China.
While the vaccine manufacturing industry will continue to be dominated by prophylactic products, particularly those that prevent influenza infection, the emerging therapeutic vaccines sector represents a significant opportunity.