Merck Announces $1 Billion Investment in Delaware, 500 Full-Time Jobs

April 29, 2025 TruthUSA

Importing pharma products under tariff conditions will prove costly for companies.

Pharmaceutical company Merck will invest $1 billion to build a 470,000 square-foot facility in Wilmington, Delaware, in a bid to boost domestic production, the company said in an April 29 statement.

The facility, located at the Chestnut Run Innovation & Science Park, is expected to create “more than 500 full-time roles and roughly 4,000 construction jobs,” the company said.

“The laboratory component is expected to be fully operational by 2028, with production of investigational compounds anticipated to start by 2030. Potential further expansion of the site would create an additional 1,500 full-time roles and 26,000 construction jobs,” it said.

The facility will comprise laboratory, manufacturing, and warehouse capabilities to aid the launch and commercial production of Merck’s medical offerings.

Specifically, the site will be able to manufacture Keytruda, the company’s prescription drug used to treat multiple cancers.

Merck said it intends to establish the facility as the “future U.S. home” for manufacturing Keytruda for American patients.

The Wilmington site is set to be located near Delaware and Pennsylvania universities, which the company said will help attract talented students and professionals, thus boosting community growth and development.

Merck CEO Robert M. Davis said the Wilmington facility represents the company’s “continued commitment” to growing its investments in U.S. manufacturing.

The site “has the potential to create thousands of high-paying American jobs while ensuring that we can produce and distribute products close to patients right here in the U.S,” he said.

According to Merck, since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act under the first Trump administration, the company has invested more than $12 billion to boost U.S. manufacturing and research capabilities. Over the next four years, Merck intends to invest more than $9 billion.

Last month, the company announced the completion of a $1 billion, 225,000 square-foot facility in Durham, North Carolina, to expand vaccine production. This investment has generated almost 4,000 construction jobs and 400 full-time roles, Merck said.

By 2028, Merck estimates that its investments in the United States will create more than 37,600 construction-related employment opportunities.

Multiple other pharma companies have announced U.S. investments in recent weeks.

On April 22, Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company Roche announced investing $50 billion in the United States over a five-year period, setting up new facilities and expanding existing ones.

Earlier, on April 10, Swiss pharma company Novartis revealed a plan to invest $23 billion over five years to boost manufacturing and research operations.

President Donald Trump announced during an April 8 speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee that he plans to implement tariffs on pharmaceutical imports.

Once tariffs are executed, pharma companies are “gonna come rushing back into our country because we are the big market,” he said.

Importing pharmaceuticals will become more expensive once tariffs are implemented, and it would make more sense for companies to shift production to the United States and avoid the extra charges.

“The advantage we have over everybody is that we are the big market. So, we’re going to be announcing, very shortly, a major tariff on pharmaceuticals. And when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places, because most of their products are sold here,” Trump said.

On April 2, Trump announced a 10 percent universal baseline tariff on trading partners as well as country-specific reciprocal tariffs. The reciprocal levies were, however, later paused for 90 days.

The stock market declined post the announcement, but has made a partial recovery.

The S&P 500 Index, which closed at around 5,670 on April 2, had fallen to a low of 4,835 on April 7. The index was trading at 5,521 as of 10 a.m. EDT on Tuesday.

Tariff revenues are also up. An April 24 Treasury statement revealed that revenues from customs and certain excise taxes had hit $15.9 billion for the month, an all-time high and up by 105 percent from a year back.

Billion-Dollar Accelerator

On Monday, IBM announced it would invest $150 billion in America over five years to accelerate the company’s role as “the global leader in computing.” Out of the $150 billion, more than $30 billion shall be dedicated to research and development related to the manufacturing of mainframe and quantum computers.

On March 24, Hyundai Motor Group revealed a $21 billion investment in the country between 2025 and 2028, which will be used for purposes such as expanding auto production and increasing the localization of auto parts.

The investment “is expected to create more than 100,000 direct and indirect job opportunities by 2028, including 14,000 direct full-time jobs,” the company said.

On March 12, GE Aerospace said it intends to invest almost $1 billion in American factories and supply chains to strengthen manufacturing. The company also said it aimed to hire roughly 5,000 U.S. workers this year in engineering and manufacturing roles.

On March 7, logistics company CMA CGM Group revealed a $20 billion investment “to contribute to U.S. maritime economy and support the transformation of America’s domestic supply chain over the next four years.”

The investments come amid the Trump administration’s push to make the United States an attractive destination for companies.

On March 31, Trump signed an executive order establishing the U.S. Investment Accelerator (USIA), an office within the Department of Commerce aimed at speeding up investments valued at $1 billion or above in the country.

The USIA will encourage companies to make large investments in the United States through measures such as lowering regulatory burdens, increasing access to national resources, and speeding up permitting.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Economic Analysis is set to release its first-quarter GDP report on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow Model is expecting growth to have declined by 0.4 percent, which, if true, would represent a contraction from the 2.4 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2024.

This would also be the first GDP quarterly decline since the first quarter of 2022. Market consensus suggests a 0.4 percent growth in the first quarter.

Source link