Merck to build $3B facility in Elkton

Merck & Co. will build a $3 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Elkton that is expected to create 500 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the company announced at a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday.

The 400,000-square-foot center will be Merck‘s Center of Excellence for Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Small Molecule Manufacturing and is an increase from the original scope of a $2 billion facility creating 300 jobs, according to a news release. The company founded a plant in the Rockingham County town in 1941, and the pharmaceutical center of excellence will add to its existing operations.

“Merck’s transformational $3 billion commitment to locate its Center of Excellence marks a giant leap forward for both America’s and Virginia’s life sciences sector,” Youngkin said in a statement. “It deepens the company’s long-standing commitment to innovation and strengthens the commonwealth’s position as the emerging national leader in biopharmaceutical advanced manufacturing and life sciences.”

Merck’s new facility will produce active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug products, supporting small-molecule manufacturing and testing. Construction will begin before the end of the year, according to a Merck spokesperson, and it is expected to be completed by 2029, according to a news release from U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

Merck Chairman and CEO Robert M. Davis said in a statement: “Today is an important milestone for Merck, for Virginia, for manufacturing in the United States and, most importantly, for the patients we serve. This investment will help advance our goal of providing new, innovative treatment options for people facing serious health challenges in the U.S. and around the world.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Rockingham County and the Shenandoah Valley Partnership to secure the project. Youngkin approved a $5 million performance-based grant from the Virginia Investment Performance grant fund and a $4 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Rockingham County with the project.

Additionally, VEDP will support Merck through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program. Created by VEDP in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, the program provides free customizable workforce recruitment and training services to qualified new and expanding companies. In September, Area Development ranked the accelerator the top workforce training program in the nation.

Merck’s most recent expansion at the Elkton site before the center of excellence was in 2022, when the company completed a major expansion of the facility to expand its human papillomavirus vaccine manufacturing capacity. As of this summer, 1,200 employees worked at the Elkton facility.

The Virginia center of excellence is part of Merck’s larger national investment of more than $70 billion to expand domestic manufacturing and research and development, according to a news release. In March, the company opened a $1 billion vaccine manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina. In April, Merck started construction on a $1 billion biologics center in Wilmington, Delaware. In March, multiple news outlets reported that Merck will close its pharmaceutical facility in Riverside, Pennsylvania, next year, eventually laying off 163 workers there.

Headquartered in New Jersey, Merck — known outside the U.S. and Canada as MSD — reported more than $64.16 billion in 2024 sales, up from about $60.11 billion in 2023.