Merck builds on leading viral and gene therapy service offering with capacity expansion

The expansion at Merck's viral and gene therapy flagship site in Carlsbad, California will allow seamless scale-up customer support from clinical to commercial scales (PRNewsFoto/Merck)

Larger Carlsbad, California facility will allow seamless scale-up customer support from clinical to commercial scales.

Scheduled for completion in 2016, the Carlsbad campus will increase from 44,000 sq ft to 65,000 sq ft, with 16 modular viral bulk manufacturing cleanroom suites, two fill/finish suites and twice the warehouse capacity. The expansion will incorporate single-use equipment in a flexible, scalable format for clinical and commercial bulk drug production.

"We are building on our industry-leading offerings in the manufacturing and testing of innovative and complex products, underscoring our commitment to being a trusted, long-term partner of choice," said Udit Batra, Member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. The company's new capacity at Carlsbad positions Merck to seamlessly support customers from clinical to commercial scales, and is complemented by cell-banking services in Rockville, Maryland, viral and gene therapy manufacturing capacity in Glasgow, Scotland and global BioReliance biosafety testing offering.

The Carlsbad facility – Merck's flagship site for SAFC's viral and gene therapies offering — will remain fully operational throughout the expansion. The Carlsbad campus features segregated fill/finish capacity for gene therapy, viral vaccine and immunotherapy products. Merck's teams have decades of combined experience in the viral, gene therapy and biosafety testing sectors.