WILMINGTON — Pharmaceutical juggernaut Merck is seeking a $30 million state grant from Delaware to open a facility in Wilmington, though its exact location has yet to be confirmed.
An agenda of the February Council on Development Finance meeting shows that Merck Sharp & Dohme — the company Merck does business with outside the United States and Canada — is requesting a grant to establish operations in Wilmington. Merck representatives declined to comment to the Delaware Business Times for this story.
Merck is a leading medicine and vaccine manufacturer. It also produces biologic therapies and animal health products, as well. Over the years, it has delivered several blockbuster medicines like cancer immunotherapies Keytruda and HPV vaccine Gardasil. In 2024, the company reported $64.2 billion in sales, including $29.5 billion from Keytruda.
Merck does have one Delaware facility to date: the Merck Animal Health facility in Millsboro. The company is also one of the largest poultry vaccine manufacturers across the world with products focusing on diseases affecting broiler chickens.
If the council approves the request on Monday, it could be the largest grant amount awarded so far to a company looking to expand in or relocate in Delaware. But it would also be the latest in pharmaceutical and biotechnology wins for the First State – WuXi STA Pharma is nearing completion of its $510 million Middletown Campus and Incyte Corporation continues the renovation of its Wilmington headquarters. Kent County is also getting in the pharmaceutical game with a new company in the works called Ally Nutra.
It is unclear where Merck may build the Wilmington operation, but the Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP), the state’s public-private economic development agency, frequently advertises the University of Delaware STAR Campus, the Chestnut Run Innovation & Science Park and other smaller sites in Newark.
DPP Senior Manager of Communications Susan Colby declined to comment on specific sites that Merck had been eyeing, nor other details about the project at this time as Merck is still in the final stages of deciding about its expansion. She did, however, say that the project, if successful, would solidify Delaware’s rising star in the biopharma world.
“The Delaware Prosperity Partnership is thrilled that another world-class biopharmaceutical company is considering growing in Delaware. Merck has a strong record of success, including developing medicines to help heal the world,” Colby said. “This project would reinforce Delaware’s standing in the global biopharmaceutical ecosystem, and we are excited by the potential opportunities it would provide Delaware residents and businesses.”
At a time when Delaware’s bioscience industry still struggles with skilled workers, Merck’s consideration of the greater Wilmington area also stresses the need for the state to continue its development of that talent to fill skilled manufacturing jobs.
Right now, the life science sector has created 16,000 jobs, with half in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology developers, research and testing companies and medical device and equipment manufacturers, among others.
But the Delaware Bioscience Association has reported that companies are still struggling to find workers with the skills needed to get the job done and many are relying on training up existing workers and building in-house programs to do so. Large companies like DuPont and AstraZeneca benefit from having a global footprint and the ability to pull from a regional market, while the competition for a limited talent pool may be harder for smaller firms.
Michael Fleming, the president and CEO of the Delaware Bioscience Association, told the Delaware Business Times that the competition is fierce for these types of jobs in manufacturing and research. But he was also optimistic that the First State could stand out more when it takes a regional point of view.
“The potential for a major, long-term investment in our state by a global science leader and outstanding employer like Merck is a recognition of Delaware’s thriving life science sector and all of the assets, from capabilities to location to workforce, that are driving our growth,” he said.
