Summary

• Merck plans to invest £1 billion to build a new research hub in London.
• While the new R&D centre with a capacity of 800 people would create around 120 new jobs, MSD would bring most of its employees from other existing labs and hub at Herefordshire to the new site.
• Merck had announced its plans to build the research hub in 2017, a year after the UK voted to leave the EU.

Merck, aspiring to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company from the United States (US), has announced that it would build a new research & development unit in the UK. The company known as Merck & Co., Inc., d.b.a. Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) outside the US and Canada, would invest £1 billion to build a new research hub at a site opposite King's Cross Station in Britain’s capital city of London. As a boost to the specialised job market for scientists and technicians in the UK, the new R&D centre would create around 120 new jobs. The pharmaceutical giant informed that it would bring most of its employees from other existing labs in the country and its present hub in Herefordshire to the new site.

MSD’s plans of building a new research centre in the UK could be seen as a major step towards advancing Britain’s pharmaceutical industry, especially after anti-Brexit campaigners speculated that the country’s drug-making expertise would be lost. This contemplation gathered momentum due to the influential European Medicines Agency, an agency of the European Union (EU) in charge of the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products being relocated to Amsterdam from London. Merck had announced its plans to build the research hub in 2017, a year after the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) and was seen as an investment in a positive direction by the then political fraternity.

Talking about the plans of MSD to build a new research unit in the UK, Nadhim Zahawi, Life sciences minister commented that the investment by the pharmaceutical major showed its strong commitment to the UK’s flourishing life sciences sector. Zahawi stated that the government’s ambitious R&D roadmap is designed to make Britain the best place in the world for scientists and researchers to live and work.

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The research hub by MSD is to be based in London’s Knowledge Quarter, which boasts of having several other firms, including Google, the Francis Crick Institute, and the Wellcome Trust, that are involved in scientific activities. This R&D unit is supposedly Merck’s first set of labs outside the US that would carry out early-stage research on new medicines. The pharmaceutical company that is known for developing medicines and vaccines for many of the critical diseases would focus on researching for diseases associated with ageing, particularly on neuroscience at the new centre in the UK to be named Discovery Research Centre. It is to be noted that the MSD’s plans to concentrate its research on the aspect of ageing and neurosciences are considered as an area with high risk but major unmet needs.

Expressing his happiness regarding the investment plan by MSD for a research unit in the UK, David Peacock, managing director for UK and Ireland at MSD, remarked that it would facilitate in creating more highly skilled local jobs. In addition, Peacock observed that it would assist the company’s ambitions to build the UK as a science superpower. Stating that MSD is looking forward to being an active participant in the UK's bioscience community, he emphasised that the UK is a leading country across the globe in the matters of developing science. Its long-term focus on building a strong research and development infrastructure would help the UK achieve its goals.

It is to be recalled that it was in 2017 that Merck first revealed its plans to build the hub, but the company took longer than anticipated time to search and finalise a suitable site in the desired location. The company believed that the chosen location would guarantee that the team could efficiently collaborate with scientists at academic centres and hospitals, situated in the vicinity, apart from other emerging biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The construction activity is expected to begin in the latter part of 2021, and the company by most probability move in by 2025. The research centre to be built at 25,000 square feet area would have a capacity for around 800 people. MSD informed that it would use sustainable materials to build the centre and endeavour to achieve reduced carbon emissions generated through construction and operation activities.

During the coronavirus pandemic, when there is a race to develop a vaccine to protect against Covid-19 infections, pharmaceutical companies have increased their search as well as the finalisation of relevant areas for office and laboratory space in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. The Oxford–Cambridge Arc is a notional arc of agricultural and urban land at about 80 kilometres (50 miles) radius of London, located in south-central England and is known as a hub for science and technology businesses. Several property companies observed that during the first half of 2020, the space for office and labs in Oxford and Cambridge was almost 80 per cent of the 10-year average in comparison to other prominent regional cities in the country registering only about 30 per cent. It is to be noted that Oxford University and AstraZeneca that are working together in creating a vaccine for a respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, are based in the same region.

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About Merck & Co. Inc (LON:0QAH)

The US-based pharmaceutical company, Merck, has been in business of inventing for life for over 125 years now. In order to pursue its mission to save and improve lives, the company that is known as MSD in Europe develops medicines and vaccines for various challenging diseases. Merck has shown its commitment to patients and population health by increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs, and partnerships. The company remains at the forefront of research to prevent and treat diseases such as cancer and infections caused by HIV and Ebola, among other emerging animal diseases.

With an increased focus on R&D, Merck has around 15,600 people employed in various R&D related activities. In 2019, the company invested $9.9 billion in its R&D projects. Merck has reached around 357 million people through its major programs and partnerships. Merck & Co. Inc has its headquarters in Kenilworth, New Jersey, US.

Conclusion

The R&D hub with an investment of £1 billion for a first early research centre outside the US showed a continued commitment by the pharmaceutical giant regarding its increased focus on research related activities to achieve the aim of leading from the front to prevent and treat diseases that could be a potential threat to the lives of human and animals. As the company is well-known to focus on latest scientific innovation to deliver medicines and vaccines, it is most likely that it would bring its knowledge and technical know-how to the new research hub to be built in the UK. This would benefit the scientific community in Britain to improve on their existing ways of working in the domain while learning and sharing anything that could possibly be helpful to both, the company as well as the UK.

Such collaborations are seen by several industry experts with increased significance at a time when the entire world is grappling with developing a safe and successful vaccine for the highly infectious coronavirus infection. The coronavirus pandemic that has brought a complete shutdown to the entire world and led to the major economic crisis has necessitated the need for strong health infrastructure, effective medicines, and vaccines to reduce the rampant harm that any such diseases could bring in future. It calls for responsible businesses to expand their capacities and increase collaborations that could help millions of people around the world.