MSD acquires WuXi's vaccine facility in Dundalk for €500m

The MSD site in Dundalk, Co Louth. The Dundalk site will become part of the company’s network of five, large-scale pharma manufacturing sites

China's WuXi Biologics is to sell its vaccine manufacturing site in Dundalk to MSD Ireland in a €500m deal.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first half of this year and will bring to eight the number ofMSD sites in Ireland.

The US drugmaker employs 3,000 people across eight sites and said it plans to add a further 1,000 roles over the next year, including 150 new jobs at the Dundalk site.

The newly acquired site is a 15,520-square-metre, three-story vaccine manufacturing facility featuring drug substance manufacturing, drug product manufacturing, and quality control labs for the supply of vaccine products for the global market. It currently employs approximately 200 people.

The Dundalk site will become part of the company’s network of five, large-scale pharma manufacturing sites — MSD Ballydine, MSD Brinny, MSD Carlow, MSD Dunboyne, and MSD Biotech in Dublin.

In its most recent accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office, WuXi Biologics Ireland Ltd reported an operating loss of €71.6m for 2023. The company said the loss was anticipated and tied to the ramping up of the facility culminating in its first engineering batch for its first client.

The Dundalk site was WuXi's first manufacturing investment in Europe and the company’s first investment of this scale outside of China.

WuXi had previously said it was planning to sell some of its operations as the company, along with other Chinese firms, has been at the centre of new US laws aimed at restricting their businesses in the United States due to national security concerns.

The bill called the Biosecure Act, is designed to keep Americans' personal health and genetic information from foreign adversaries and to push local pharmaceutical and biotech companies to reduce their reliance on China.

Investor update

In an update for investors, Wuxi said it had entered a 20-year contract with MSD in 2019 to build a vaccine manufacturing facility. 

In the update WuXi said: "The company believes that the asset transaction will not only enable the company to realise its investment in the assets and enhance its asset efficiencies and margins, allowing the company to focus on providing vaccines CDMO (contract manufacturing) services from its vaccines sites in Suzhou, China, but also enable the purchaser to better integrate the vaccine production within their global manufacturing network and benefit patients worldwide, given that Vaccines Ireland Facility was a dedicated facility designed and constructed by the vendor for the purchaser in relation to the manufacturing of commercial vaccine products to meet the purchaser’s business needs."

Michael Lohan, CEO of IDA Ireland, said the acquisition and new jobs is a testament to Ireland’s position as a global leader in the pharmaceutical value chain, continuously attracting investments. "Our partnership with MSD Ireland spans nearly 50 years, and it’s exciting to see the company continue to both deepen and broaden its roots all across the country, expanding to its new location in Dundalk," he said.

Sanat Chattopadhyay, Executive Vice President and President of MSD’s Manufacturing Division said the company is looking to advance the future of health. "The acquisition of this WuXi site in Dundalk will give us the opportunity to do just that: deliver for people and patients faster, looking at the health challenges of today and tomorrow.”