Pharmaceutical company Merck has announced the opening of a new US$1 billion facility at its North Carolina site.
This follows growing pressure from United States President Donald Trump's for local U.S. drug manufacturing to increase as after threats back in February to impose a 25% tariff on pharmaceutical imports.
The same month, Trump met with the CEOs of major pharmaceutical companies and since then Eli Lilly has announced it would be investing at least US$27 billion to build four new manufacturing plants in the States and Pfizer suggested it might make a similar move and bring overseas manufacturing to U.S. facilities instead.
Merck has already spent more than US$12 billion since 2018 to expand manufacturing on its home soil in the U.S. and is expected to total a further US$8 billion by 2028.
Speaking about the new facility in Durham, North Carolina, executive vice president and president Sanat Chattopadhyay said that it was a “significant milestone” for production capabilities.
"The cutting-edge technologies employed here empower our workforce and underscore our leadership in innovation to support patients everywhere."
At the time of writing, the stock price for Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) was US$94.71 ($94.99 after hours), with a market cap of approximately $239.241 billion.
