German life sciences company Merck is to spend a total of €440m on a factory at Blarney Business Park and increase capacity at a plant in Carrigtwohill, both in Cork, southwest Ireland.
The €290m expansion in Carrigtwohill will add a module for the immersion casting of membranes, which will support gene therapies, as well as applications such as virus sterilisation. The expansion follows a €36m investment at the same site in 2021, which was used to produce rapid diagnostic testing for tropical diseases such as dengue fever, malaria and ebola.
At Blarney Business Park, Merck will build a €150m filtration manufacturing facility.
Work on the two projects is due to be completed by 2027 and will create 370 permanent jobs.
Belén Garijo, Merck’s chief executive, said: “This €440 million expansion of our Cork site, together with other major investments worldwide, will further enhance the value that Merck can deliver to customers throughout the development and production of their specialised medicines, vaccines and diagnostics.”
Matthias Heinzel, chief executive of Merck Life Science division, said: “The investment in Cork is the biggest site investment in the history of our life science business and will accelerate the delivery of the critical products, technologies and services our customers need to fight the world’s toughest health challenges, including Covid-19.”
