Merck starts S'pore plant

Merck starts S'pore plant

SINGAPORE (DPA): The world's largest pharmaceutical company, Merck, has started work on a US$300 million plant in Singapore, news reports said Thursday.

"The Asian financial crisis did not affect Merck's decision to go ahead with the Singapore plant as the company thinks long- term," Paul Bell, Merck's president for human health products for the Asia-Pacific, told the Straits Times newspaper.

The company on Wednesday began laying the foundation for the plant on a 12-hectare Singapore site. The facility would produce bulk chemicals for Merck's manufacturing operations worldwide starting in 2001, the newspaper said.

The new plant was expected to expand Merck's business by 10 per cent. Asia's share of its sales - just 7.5 per cent last year - was expected to fall this year, but the company said this would have little impact on its profitability.

The New Jersey-based company had global sales of $24 billion last year.