Merck axes £1bn London research hub and cuts 125 jobs
US drugmaker Merck has scrapped its £1bn London research centre and will cut 125 scientific jobs in the capital this year.
The planned UK Discovery Centre at Belgrove House, opposite St Pancras and King’s Cross stations, was already under construction and due to open in two years.
It had been expected to employ about 800 staff, including 180 scientists.
Merck, known as MSD in Europe, will leave laboratories at the London Bioscience Innovation Centre, which hosts more than 60 life science companies, and the neighbouring Francis Crick Institute by the end of 2025.
The New Jersey-based company said research will move to other sites but gave no details. Pharmaceutical firms have been under pressure from Donald Trump to shift more investment to the US.
In a statement, MSD announced “plans to discontinue discovery research operations in the UK and that it no longer plans to occupy the Belgrove House site at King’s Cross”.
The company said.“This […] reflects the challenges of the UK not making meaningful progress towards addressing the lack of investment in the life science industry and the overall undervaluation of innovative medicines and vaccines by successive UK governments.”
MSD had previously said the research centre would build on the company’s 100-year heritage in the UK, close to London’s Knowledge Quarter and its Moorgate headquarters.
It will retain its HQ and a large animal health site in Milton Keynes.
The move is a setback for the UK’s life sciences sector, which Keir Starmer’s government has called “one of the crown jewels of the UK economy”.
The former Conservative government had pledged to make Britain a “global science and technology superpower” by 2030.
Talks between ministers and the industry over medicine costs collapsed last month. Under the voluntary pricing and access scheme, companies return revenue from newer branded medicines.
In 2023, the rebate rate rose to 23.5 per cent, compared with 5.7 per cent in France and 7 per cent in Germany.
Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), said: “This is a real blow to the UK’s life sciences ambitions.
“No one wants to hear that successful and innovative companies like MSD are reducing their investment and footprint in the UK.”
The announcement came as a report showed Britain slipping behind rivals in drug investment and research.
UK life sciences R&D has underperformed against global trends since 2018, according to a study by the ABPI and PwC.
Annual growth in R&D spending slowed to 1.9 per cent from 2020, down from 6.3 per cent in the three years before, and well below the global average of 6.6 per cent. Industry spending on research dropped by nearly £100m in 2023.
Foreign life sciences investment in the UK was £795m in 2023, 58 per cent lower than the £1.9bn recorded in 2017. This pushed Britain down from second place worldwide in 2017 and 2021 to seventh in 2023.
The UK also slipped in clinical trials, ranking eighth for late-stage industry trials in 2023, compared with fourth in 2017.
