Chinese CDMO WuXi Biologics is selling its vaccine manufacturing facility in Dundalk, Ireland, for approximately $500 million to Merck, known as MSD outside of the U.S. and Canada.
MSD and WuXi Biologics have been collaborating on the site in Dundalk since 2019, when construction began. The official handover of the facility, which started operations in 2021, is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.
“The Dundalk site will become part of the company’s existing network of five cutting-edge, large-scale pharma manufacturing, research, and development sites across the country — MSD Ballydine, MSD Brinny, MSD Carlow, MSD Dunboyne and MSD Biotech, Dublin — and substantial animal health and human health operations across two locations in Dublin,” according to the announcement.
In 2023, MSD announced a more than $1 billion investment at its sites in Carlow — which serves as a filling site for the launch and commercial supply of vaccines, biologics, and small molecule drug products — and Dunboyne, MSD’s first biologics drug substance single-use commercialization facility. The company, which has 3,000 employees in Ireland, is planning to add about 1,000 jobs this year — including 150 new jobs at the Dundalk facility, which currently employs approximately 200 people.
The 15,520-square-meter vaccine manufacturing facility in Dundalk — located between Dublin and Belfast — achieved GMP certification in 2022 and is one of the world’s largest facilities utilizing single-use bioreactor technology, according to WuXi Biologics. MSD said the plant features drug substance and drug product manufacturing, as well as quality control labs for the supply of vaccine products for the global market.
Two weeks ago, Chinese CDMO WuXi AppTec announced it was selling the U.S. and UK-based operations of WuXi Advanced Therapies, its cell and gene therapy business unit, to New York-headquartered private equity firm Altaris for an undisclosed amount.
In October 2024, the Financial Times reported that WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics were exploring sales of some of their respective U.S. and European operations. WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics are among five China-based biotech companies named in the BIOSECURE Act, which seeks to prevent U.S. federal funds from supporting certain Chinese biotech “companies of concern.”
While the passage of the BIOSECURE Act has stalled in Congress, the “ripple effect” of the proposed legislation “is already being felt by Chinese CDMOs” with contract manufacturers in the U.S., EU, and India seeing some “programs shifting to these geographies,” according to CPHI’s 2024 annual report.
Still, Chinese biomanufacturing is poised for “significant” growth next year, according to an announcement from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
China announced that biomanufacturing is among several emerging industries in which the country plans to accelerate development in 2025. Strengthening U.S. biomanufacturing is critical to maintaining America’s global lead in biotechnology, according to industry stakeholders.