
The Darmstadt DAX group is making a deal in the mid-three-digit million range with the Swiss company Lonza. These are locations with more than 1000 jobs.
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The Merck Group is realigning its portfolio under new boss Kai Beckmann and divesting itself of peripheral activities.
The Darmstadt DAX group is making a deal in the mid-three-digit million range with the Swiss company Lonza. These are locations with more than 1000 jobs.
The Darmstadt-based Merck Group is selling its US business with the contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) of active ingredients to Switzerland. The pharmaceutical manufacturer Lonza is taking over five locations in the USA with a workforce of around 1,100 people for a mid-three-digit million euro amount, as Merck and Lonza announced.
The transaction, which is expected to close in mid-2027, includes locations in Carlsbad, California, Madison and Verona, Wisconsin, Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Louis, Missouri. As a result of the announcement, the shares of the DAX group lost almost 1.5 percent in Frankfurt.
Contract development and manufacturing helps customers advance therapies from development to production. Even after the deal is completed, Merck will continue to support pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers with a wide range of consumables, technologies and services, emphasized Merck.
Merck is restructuring its portfolio under its new CEO Kai Beckmann, who has led the DAX company since May. “Today’s announcement is another important step towards implementing our medium to long-term strategic agenda,” said Beckmann. Merck wants to focus more on innovation-driven businesses.
Praise for the deal with Lonza came from Richard Vosser, analyst at US bank JPMorgan: "From a strategic perspective, we see the transaction as a logical step, as the business does not have the required size and is capital intensive, which will allow Merck KGaA to concentrate on its core life science businesses."
In June, Merck agreed to take over the US company Bio-Techne, a provider of analysis technologies, for almost ten billion euros to strengthen its laboratory division (life science). The Darmstadt-based company also recently announced the takeover of the British biotech company Silence Therapeutics for around one billion euros in order to expand its business with rare diseases.
Lonza, headquartered in Basel, employs around 17,000 people. “By integrating Merck's CDMO business into Lonza, our customers will gain access to a broader range of services and additional production capacity in the USA, an important market for Lonza,” said company boss Wolfgang Wienand.
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