Dive Brief:
- Merck will close its pharmaceuticals plant in Riverside, Pennsylvania, next year, with plans to conduct phased layoffs affecting a total of 163 workers, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
- The health care company will conduct its first and second rounds of job cuts May 16 - May 30 and June 23 - July 7, according to a Pennsylvania Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification. A final round is scheduled for 2026.
- The site’s performance was not a factor in Merck’s decision, Ned Ehrbar, associate director of global media relations, said in an email. The company continuously assesses its operations and evolving business needs, Ehrbar added.
Dive Insight:
The upcoming layoffs and impending closure of Merck’s Cherokee Pharamaceuticals plant in Riverside are part of delayed plans that were initially announced in 2022.
Around that time, the facility employed 300 workers and was scheduled to end production of its active pharmaceutical ingredients in 2024, BioSpace reported.
Merck declined to say why the closure was delayed. The company said it will continue to support employees at the site through the transition and provide severance benefits.
Merck has several manufacturing and supply locations across the United States, including in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Delaware, North Carolina, Virginia and Nebraska, according to its website. Recently, the company opened a new $1 billion vaccine manufacturing site in Durham, North Carolina, as part of a domestic expansion effort.
“Merck remains committed to Pennsylvania and employs approximately 14,000 people in the state,” the company said in a statement.
Its largest pharmaceutical manufacturing site is in West Point, Pennsylvania, located just outside of Philadelphia and spanning 400 acres. Merck has invested more than $3 billion in its Pennsylvania operations to date, according to the company.
The Riverside location, located off the Susquehanna River, has dealt with groundwater contamination issues over the years and affected some nearby residential wells, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Merck completed a clean-up plan to address contamination areas and concerns in 2008, and since then the facility has monitored groundwater and maintained the remediation system.
Prior to Merck’s ownership of the site, Heyden Chemical Company leased the site from the U.S. government to produce hexane for munitions during World War II.
