Merck opens first M Lab Center in Europe; plans big invest in Darmstadt

German life sciences company Merck KGaA (MRK: DE) today officially opened its new M Lab™ Collaboration Center in Molsheim, France. The center is Merck’s first in Europe and ninth worldwide, providing biopharmaceutical manufacturers with a shared, exploratory environment where they can closely collaborate with Merck scientists and engineers to solve their toughest challenges and accelerate development and production of new therapies.

“With the rapidly growing biopharma industry in Europe and demand for cost-effective therapies worldwide, customers will benefit from our expertise to develop processes for manufacturing drugs faster, safer and more effectively,” said Udit Batra, a member of the Merck executive board and chief executive, Life Science, in Molsheim today. “Our investment here will accelerate the future growth of EMEA’s biopharmaceutical industry.”

The 10 million-euro ($11.3 million) center provides customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa with a fully equipped, non-GMP pilot and bench scale lab and meeting center where they can work alongside Merck experts to solve their most pressing processing development challenges without impacting their production line.