Merck Opens Climate-Neutral €150 Million Filter Manufacturing Facility in Ireland

Merck, a leading science and technology company, has opened today its €150 million filter manufacturing facility in Blarney Business Park, Cork, Ireland. The site is Merck’s first manufacturing facility designed for full climate-neutral operations, marking a key milestone in the company’s ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2040.

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The 3,000-square-meter cleanroom facility supports global demand for critical filtration products used in the manufacturing of vaccines and life-saving therapies, including monoclonal antibodies, and emerging modalities like cell and gene therapies. By localizing these capacities in Europe, Merck hopes to reduce cross-border dependencies for the company’s customers.

“Ireland is a leading hub for biopharmaceutical manufacturing and innovation for Europe and globally. By expanding manufacturing in Cork, we reinforce our in-region-for-region manufacturing and supply model, reducing cross-border risks and providing manufacturers with reliable access to critical filtration technologies they need to deliver life-changing therapies”, said Jean-Charles Wirth, Member of the Executive Board of Merck and CEO Life Science.

The facility is expected to begin production in the fourth quarter of 2025 and will manufacture filtration devices used in aseptic processing, tangential-flow filtration and virus filtration. These filtration technologies are key components of most bioprocessing templates and are vital to controlling bioburden, streamlining purification and removing viral contaminants. They assure vaccines and therapeutics meet expected purity standards and are safe for administration to patients.

The new site will run on 100% renewable electricity and an innovative heat recovery system, which is estimated to avoid up to 61 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents annually. It will also reuse up to 95% of high-purity reverse osmosis water from its filtration manufacturing process.

The Blarney Business Park facility is part of Merck’s largest Life Science investment to date. Together with the nearby Carrigtwohill site, the company has committed €440 million to expand membrane and filtration manufacturing in Ireland. These investments are part of Merck’s €2 billion Life Science global expansion program, announced in 2020, to meet growing demand for life-saving therapies across Europe, China, and the United States.

About Merck

Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across life science, healthcare and electronics. More than 62,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From providing products and services that accelerate drug development and manufacturing as well as discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2024, Merck generated sales of € 21.2 billion in 65 countries.

Scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to Merck’s technological and scientific advances. This is how Merck has thrived since its founding in 1668. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck operate as MilliporeSigma in life science, EMD Serono in healthcare, and EMD Electronics in electronics.

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