MilliporeSigma Starts Construction on $115 Million Multi-faceted Life Science Campus in Burlington, Massachusetts

- New campus will serve as major life science hub for Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, with state-of-the-art laboratory for customer collaboration

- 280,000-square foot LEED-certified building to include flexible workspaces and labs

BILLERICA, Mass., July 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MilliporeSigma today announced plans to build a new campus in Burlington, Massachusetts that will serve as a major hub for the North American life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The 280,000-square-foot facility at 400 Wheeler Road will include a customer collaboration laboratory and training center as well as office space.

"This new and more expansive MilliporeSigma campus gives us a unique, multi-use life science hub in the United States—one that provides our employees and customers with a sustainable and collaborative working environment," said Udit Batra, Member, Executive Board, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and CEO, MilliporeSigma. "We have a long history in the Commonwealth, and as a global leader in life science, we are committed to strengthening our presence in one of the most important science and technology hubs in the world."

The campus will serve as a premier global customer destination, housing both a customer service and call center and an M Lab™ Collaboration Center—a state-of-the-art, shared, exploratory environment where the company's scientists and engineers work together with customers to help solve their toughest life science challenges. The M Lab™ Collaboration Center will be one of nine centers worldwide created specifically for collaboration, where hands-on training, customer experiments and application troubleshooting take place in a non-GMP environment. Other locations will include Brazil, China, France, India, Singapore and South Korea. This new enhanced M Lab™ Collaboration Center in Burlington will replace the flagship M Lab™ at the company's Billerica facility.

"For nearly a decade, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has built a significant presence in Massachusetts and we are extremely pleased to support their expansion in Burlington through the MassWorks Infrastructure Program," said Gov. Charlie Baker. "Building long-lasting public-private partnerships is vital to growing our economy, and the MilliporeSigma campus represents significant investment and confidence in our shared future as a global life science center."

MilliporeSigma's 850 full-time Billerica-based employees will relocate to the new campus when construction is complete in the second half of 2017.

The $115 million building will be LEED certified. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system is the most widely used third-party verification for green construction, certifying buildings that promote sustainability, resource conservation and human health.

The five-story, single-tenant building near Route 3 and Route 128 in Burlington is being built by The Gutierrez Company. The project includes an opportunity to expand an additional 70,000 square feet. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, whose life science business operates as MilliporeSigma in the United States and Canada, leases the property.

MilliporeSigma will maintain its other North American life science hub in St. Louis, Missouri.

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About the Life Science Business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

The life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has 19,000 employees and 65 manufacturing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products enabling scientific discovery. Udit Batra is the global chief executive officer of MilliporeSigma.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany completed its $17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich in November 2015, creating a leader in the $125 billion global life science industry.

Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany is a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials. The company has six businesses – Biopharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Allergopharma, Biosimilars, Life Science and Performance Materials – and generated sales of € 12.85 billion in 2015. Around 50,000 employees work in 66 countries to improve the quality of life for patients, to foster the success of customers and to help meet global challenges.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company – since 1668, the company has stood for innovation, business success and responsible entrepreneurship. Holding an approximately 70 percent interest, the founding family remains the majority owner of the company to this day. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany holds the global rights to the name and the trademark "Merck" internationally except for the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD performance materials.

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SOURCE MilliporeSigma