Merck KGaA Selects Jena, Germany, As Site For Planned Protein Production Plant
Merck KGaA announced today that the company will focus its planning efforts for a new large-scale production plant for therapeutic proteins on Jena in the German State of Thuringia.
The decision was announced jointly on Monday by Thuringia's Prime Minister, Dr. Bernhard Vogel, and the Chairman of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA, Prof. Bernhard Scheuble, at the company's headquarters in Darmstadt.
For Merck KGaA, the selection of the Jena site represents a first major step towards the largest single investment in the company's 335-year history. Merck intends to use the planned facility - which requires an investment of about EUR 300 million and should create some 260 new jobs as well as 20 trainee positions - to manufacture the latest generation of biologic cancer treatments. However, the basic decision to build the plant has yet to be made.
"The decision to select Jena as a location for the planned investment was not an easy one," Prof. Scheuble stressed to journalists in Darmstadt. "The high level of enthusiasm and professionalism of our contacts in Thuringia, as well as the prospective financial support of about 30 percent of the total investment tipped the scales in the end."
"We are proud that Thuringia has again won an international competition for such a forward-looking investment," Dr. Vogel commented. "Beyond supporting the actual investment itself, we also have offered Merck attractive terms and conditions that extend to professional qualifications for new employees in the region."
Franz Schuster, Thuringia's Economics Minister, commented: "With the new plant, Merck brings a key technology in Oncology to Thuringia. This definitely should attract further investors."
A number of countries, including Singapore, Taiwan, Spain, the USA, Switzerland and Ireland, took part in the fierce international competition to win the planned production plant. After internal evaluation, two US sites - Durham in North Carolina and Billerica near Boston, Massachusetts - joined Jena on the final short list.
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