Summit up as Celgene steps in to buy Merck & Co. campus

In 2013​, Merck & Co. (known as MSD outside North America) announced it was shutting two facilities in New Jersey as part of planned global operations cuts designed to save the firm $2.5bn (€2.3bn) and reduce (mostly R&D) headcount by 16,000.

A manufacturing plant closed at Merck’s now global headquarters in Kenilworth in September 2013​, while production at a site in Summit was due to cease this year​. But fellow pharma firm Celgene has stepped in to buy Summit, the company confirmed.

“It is probably too early to know what our definitive plans are for the site​,” Celgene spokesman Gregory Geissman told in-Pharmatechnologist.com, but added the additional site “​gives us the opportunity to potentially consolidate employees from other sites in New Jersey, and have space to expand into as we continue our growth as a company.”​

Celgene, which is headquartered in Summit, has five other sites across New Jersey. This latest property adds around 850,000 square feet of administrative space and 450,000 of predominantly R&D facilities.

Over the past few weeks, Celgene has entered into a $1bn, 10-year immunotherapy partnership​ to bring Juno Therapeutics’ T-Cell platform to market, as well as spending $7.2bn​ to acquire California-based biotech Receptos.

However, the decision to buy Sunnit “does not have to do with our recent business development deals,” ​Geissman said.

Summit Up​

The news will come as some relief to the City of Summit which has been somewhat in limbo during Merck’s pull-out.

In a State of the City speech presented in January​, Summit Mayor Ellen Dickson said elected officials had been working closely with Merck representatives to find a buyer for the 88 acre campus.

Merck was Summit’s largest tax payer, paying around $9m annually in property taxes, but “the City has to be prepared for the reality that Merck taxes may be lower in the future until the property is sold,”​ she said.