International pharmaceutical maker Merck, after moving its headquarters around to several locations in North Jersey in the past few years, has finally settled into its new base in Rahway.
The drug manufacturer on Tuesday officially opened what it described as a "reimagined site" as its new headquarters at 126 E. Lincoln Ave. Merck has transformed the campus, which was once just home to one of its manufacturing facilities, and consolidated all its New Jersey operations there. The 210-acre site, which spans Linden as well as Rahway, has 100 buildings now.
“Rahway is the birthplace of Merck Research Laboratories, where our ongoing journey of innovative biopharmaceutical research and development began,” Merck Chairman and CEO Robert Davis said in a statement. “A century later, we begin a new chapter of discovery and hope for all humanity.”
The Garden State was once known as the medicine chest of the nation, home to a number of pharmaceutical companies. But some of those firms closed their New Jersey headquarters when the drug industry underwent a series of mergers and acquisitions. Merck's decision to keep its headquarters in New Jersey was a boost to Gov. Phil Murphy's effort to retain and attract life sciences companies.
Merck moved its headquarters in 2015 from a 1.24 million-square-foot location in the Whitehouse Station section of Reading Township, New Jersey, to Kenilworth, New Jersey. Merck got the Kenilworth campus at 2000 Galloping Hill Road as part of its $41 billion acquisition in 2009 of pharmaceutical firm Schering-Plough, which had used the property as its world headquarters.
Merck then announced it planned to bring all its New Jersey operations to its property in Rahway.
Onyx Equities and Machine Investment Group acquired the 108-acre Kenilworth site, which includes nearly 2 million square feet of biologics and research-and-development buildings, earlier this year.
Murphy attended Merck's event alongside other government officials.
“The ribbon-cutting of Merck’s Rahway headquarters proves that the companies of tomorrow are deciding to not only locate here, but to stay and grow here as we continue to cultivate our burgeoning innovation economy,” the governor said in a statement. “The economic impact of this site, which will boast more than 6,000 employees and solidify New Jersey’s standing as a global pharmaceuticals hub, cannot be overstated."
The Rahway campus "has seen the start of many of the company’s scientific breakthroughs, from penicillin to cortisone to lovastatin," Merck said in a statement.
The property includes the Flex Center, an adaptable experimental facility for both development work and clinical manufacturing, Merck said.