Merck is planning to focus on early bioscience discovery and entrepreneurial innovation by establishing a state of the art life sciences discovery research facility in London.

The new UK Discovery Centre is anticipated to create 150 new research roles with the aim of attracting the brightest and best research scientists to work in London.

The company is currently evaluating several potential locations in the London region with a target date of 2020 for operational readiness. Till then, the firm plans to establish a small temporary research facility in the area and is actively recruiting for suitably qualified scientific talent.

The new site will accommodate approximately 800 existing additional staff for the UK domestic market and other European clinical functions currently based in its UK’s Hoddesdon headquarters.

It is intended that the UK Discovery Centre will become the location for Merck’s UK HQ, making the central London site a unique location within the UK pharmaceutical sector.

The proposed investment is in line with its Research Laboratories arm’s continued pursuit of new innovative scientific discovery and collaboration, and follows similar investments in new biomedical centres in the San Francisco Bay Area and Cambridge Massachusetts.