Merck, a leading science and technology company, is expanding production capacity for highly-purified reagents at its site in Nantong, China, a major transportation hub in the Yangtze River Delta region.

The approximate €70 million investment will allow the large-scale manufacturing of high-purity reagents for quality control and testing for biopharma customers, increasing annual output by several thousand tons. Merck and the Nantong Economic and Technological Development Area (NETDA) signed the corresponding agreement in support of the expansion.

Merck will build a new reagent production plant at the Nantong site, which is expected to be operational by 2026. The facility will cover 40,000 square meters and offer high-performance products for quality control and testing to customers in the pharmaceutical, and industrial sectors, including food & beverage.

Merck aims to increase Group sales to approximately € 25 billion by 2025. To achieve its growth targets, the company plans to increase its total investments between 2021 and 2025 significantly compared with the period from 2016 to 2020. The latest investment in Nantong further supports Merck’s strategy to diversify its footprint and increase supply chain resilience in alignment with its customer base. In 2022, the company’s Life Science business invested € 29 million in a new biologics testing center in Shanghai, and € 100 million to accelerate single-use manufacturing in Wuxi.