• New 2,700-square-meter facility expands production capacity for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and other recombinant proteins
• Clients benefit from differentiated CTDMO services that simplify experience to improve speed to market
• End-to-end support through clinical and late-stage commercial further accelerates and streamlines drug development process; one of Merck's “Big 3” growth drivers

Merck, a leading science and technology company, has opened a commercial facility for its new Millipore^® CTDMO Services offering at the company’s site in Martillac, France. The 2,700-square-meter facility will provide global supply of commercial drug substances, including mAbs and other recombinant proteins, from an integrated site featuring state-of-the-art single-use equipment and onsite regulatory, quality and technical experts.

“Our clients are pioneering modern medicine and managing multiple partners, supply chain needs and complex priorities and are turning to Merck to help them navigate the complexity and provide flexibility and scale,” said Dirk Lange, Head of Life Science Services, Life Science business sector of Merck. “With this facility and our global Millipore^® CTDMO Services network, we offer truly differentiated services, including templates for drug development, manufacturing and commercialization to accelerate molecules to market with one experienced partner.”

This expansion will support clients such as Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc., a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on pediatric immunotherapies leveraging Merck’s CTDMO services. “With Merck’s support, we’ve brought our drug candidate for pediatric brain cancer to patients in roughly half the time than the approximate 12 years it typically takes to bring a biologic to market,” said Torben Lund-Hansen, CTO, Head of Technical Operations, Y-mAbs. “Merck’s end-to-end process development and GMP manufacturing services were key to achieving this milestone.”

The Martillac facility is designed to operate at the highest levels of efficiency and can rapidly pivot from 200 to 2000 litres of drug substance. It also features two 2000-litre bioreactors in one manufacturing suite to increase capacity and flexibility. Leveraging state-of-the-art technology and a proven quality system allow Merck clients to streamline and accelerate the commercialization process by eliminating the need for tech transfer and scale-up between clinical and commercial stages. This differentiated CTDMO services offering is purpose-built and seamlessly integrates product characterization and safety testing to accelerate the development and commercialization process.

With more than 30 years of drug development, material science and process technology expertise, Millipore^® CTDMO Services offerings span pre-clinical to commercial phases, including testing, across multiple modalities including mAbs, highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients, antibody-drug conjugates, viral vector therapies, mRNA, and lipid nanoparticle formulation. This includes hardware and software, single-use consumables, and raw materials. The company’s network includes sites throughout Europe, the U.S., and Asia.

Merck’s Millipore^® CTDMO Services are part of the recently formed Life Science Services business unit, which, along with the Process Solutions business, is one of Merck's “Big 3” growth drivers. The company aims to increase its Group sales to approximately € 25 billion by 2025. To achieve its growth targets, Merck plans to increase its total investments between 2021 and 2025 significantly compared with the period from 2016 to 2020.

Recently, Merck announced expansion projects in its Life Science business sector in Verona and Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA; Cork, Ireland; Wuxi, China; Darmstadt, Germany; Buchs, Switzerland; Carlsbad, California, USA; Jaffrey, New Hampshire, USA; and Danvers, Massachusetts, USA, Molsheim, France, and Shanghai, China. These expansions are part of an ambitious, multi-year program to increase the capacity and capabilities of Merck’s Life Science business sector to support the growing global demand for lifesaving medications and to make significant contributions to public health.