MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada life sciences arm of Germany’s Merck KGaA, continued its march of manufacturing investments this year with plans to pump $76 million into expanding production capacity at its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) facility in St. Louis.
The project will triple the site’s existing capacity and enhance its process and analytical development labs, the company said in an Oct. 29 press release. Plans include upgrading 34,000 square feet of existing space, plus adding new labs, a dedicated manufacturing buffer preparation facility, cold storage infrastructure and a warehouse.
The expansion will lead to the creation of 170 new jobs, MilliporeSigma said.
Like other CDMOs, MilliporeSigma has been investing heavily in ADC production. ADCs are a type of cancer treatment that combines a monoclonal antibody with a chemotherapy drug to deliver the drug directly to cancer cells. The company lays claim to being the first commercially approved ADC CDMO in North America.
The company began focusing heavily on new cancer treatments in 2022 when it opened its $65 million, 70,000-square foot facility in Verona, Wisconsin. That site doubled the company's capacity to produce highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs) used in novel cancer therapies, including ADCs.
In June, MilliporeSigma pumped about $66.3 million into the build-out of a new quality control building at Merck KGaA's headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany. That project came quick on the heels of news the company would pay about $600 million for Minus Bio, which produces transfection reagents. Those reagents allow genetic material to be incorporated into cells that are then used to make viral-vector-based gene therapies.
Back in March, MilliporeSigma said it was investing $326 million in its new bioprocessing plant in Daejeon, South Korea, marking the CDMO’s largest investment in the Asia-Pacific region.