Explaining the rationale behind the reorganization, Matthias Heinzel, member of Merck’s executive board and CEO of Life Science, said “science and technology are advancing at an unprecedented speed, and with that are the needs and expectations of our customers worldwide. Having the right operating model in place will accelerate our ability to provide the best products and services to our customers and deliver on our high ambitions for long-term profitable growth.”

The new Life Science Services (LSS) unit, to be headed by Dirk Lange, who will be based in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA, will merge Merck’s exiting Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) and Contract Testing services into a new global fully integrated services organization. This will encompass traditional and novel modalities, along with the businesses’ respective sales and marketing, R&D, manufacturing and supply chain operations.

Merck’s CDMO service activities cover traditional modalities such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients (HP-APIs), along with novel modalities such as antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) and viral and gene therapies (VGTs). The group said its mRNA offering, strengthened through the acquisition of AmpTec last year, will be further complemented through the planned purchase of Exelead.

The Process Solutions (PS) business unit will continue to be led by Andrew Bulpin and focus on delivering the product offering for pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, including filtration devices, chromatography resins, single-use assemblies and systems, as well as processing chemicals and excipients. This unit is designed to leverage close synergies between the portfolio of the LSS organization and the” best-in-class” products from Process Solutions, which Merck said will enable it to provide a “unique and differentiated proposition” to global customers.

Led by Jean-Charles Wirth, currently head of Applied Solutions, the new Science and Lab Solutions (SLS) unit will combine the former Research Solutions and Applied Solutions business units into one organization. Thus, the Darmstadt-based player will provide “a more seamless experience” to customers in the pharma and biotech, industrial and testing, academic and government sectors as well as diagnostics.

Customers of the new SLS unit will be able to draw on Merck’s scientific expertise as well as having access to a wide selection of products. This unit’s offering will include reagents, consumables, devices, instruments, software and services for scientific discovery, in addition to lab water instruments, consumables and services, microbiology and biomonitoring products, test assays and analytical reagents, along with flow cytometry kits and instruments.

Ivan Donzelot, who succeeds the retiring Christos Ross, will head the fourth new business unit, to be known as Integrated Supply Chain and Operations (ISCO). Donzelot will be based in Switzerland. Merck said the aim of this new regrouping is to further establish standardized and best-in-class processes within site operations and supply chain.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist