Ground was broken on the 280,000 sq ft facility in Burlington, Massachusetts in July 2016, and 15 months later MilliporeSigma – the life science division of Germany’s Merck – has opened the doors on its $115m (€97m) investment.
The site will serve as a hub for drugmakers looking to find solutions for their bioprocessing needs, MilliporeSigma said, and includes an “M Lab Collaboration Center” offering a full-scale non-GMP pilot lab and process development lab expected to serve more than 500 customers per year.
CEO Udit Batra said the campus “is specifically designed to foster a hands-on, collaborative environment where customers and our scientists and engineers come together to solve the toughest problems in life science.”
Burlington replaces the company’s nearby Billerica lab, with 850 full-time employees currently at the relocating to the new campus.
The M Lab concept is being launched globally with MilliporeSigma offering the same services across eight sites from France to South Korea.