Winter 2022New Beginnings

1MSD Biotech has officially opened its doors, establishing itself as an intricate and fundamental part of both MSD Ireland and the industry as a whole – and most importantly, making a crucial difference to the patients whose lives they impact. Site lead, Liam Dunne, gives us an insight into working life at the new site and what they have achieved thus far.

QWhat will the opening of the new site at MSD Biotech, Dublin mean for MSD Ireland?
MSD in Ireland has a long-standing and wonderful legacy of manufacturing and commercial operations across human and animal health. With the start-up and opening of the Biotech, Dublin site, we now have five really important human health manufacturing sites in the country, out of the total of 17 worldwide across the manufacturing division. Not only do we have almost a third of those manufacturing sites in Ireland, the sites we have are mission critical to the company and, more importantly, our patients. We supply many of the company’s most crucial new and existing medicines and vaccines from these locations.
Q Will the new site help impact MSD at a global level?
Absolutely. MSD made a very significant investment to build and start-up this facility because that impact is so significant. Biotech, Dublin is a state-of-the-art, digitally enabled biologics drug substance facility which is supplying MSD’s top product and the most important oncology medicine in the world. Indeed, it has been the very success of KEYTRUDA which is the driver for the investment in Biotech, Dublin. The success of the site is needed to ensure we have the ability to supply our ever-increasing needs for this critical medicine to our cancer patients.
Q What is it about the new facilities at the site that most excites you?
If I am allowed, I would like to say two things! Firstly, it is the mission. Feeling part of a team whose mission is to enable significantly increasing supply of this life-saving medicine to our patients around the world is the purpose which drives and excites me. I have worked on many great medicines over the years which have had significant positive impact on human health, but KEYTRUDA may just bring that to another level and that is important to me.
The second piece is the people and the culture. The culture and the hiring at the site has been very thoughtfully and deliberately designed and realised. The net result of this, day-to-day, is we get to work with a diverse and inclusive team, who collaborate wonderfully, and are full of ideas and energy to make things happen. I learn something every day and I continue to be surprised by the amazing things our people and teams can achieve.
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Q What is the Pembrolizumab drug substance used to treat?

Pembrolizumab drug substance is the active ingredient in KEYTRUDA, an anti-PD-1 receptor blockade which is now approved to treat cancer across many tumour types and indications. It was initially approved in 2014 (US) and we reached the milestone of treating one million cancer patients during 2022 (i.e., eight years later). We expect to reach the two million milestone by 2024.
Q What impact will the manufacturing of this drug at the new Biotech, Dublin site in Ireland have on both the greater pharma industry and patients?
MSD Ireland already has a huge impact on KEYTRUDA supply as the MSD Carlow site completes the bulk of the worldwide drug product manufacturing – and has done so very successfully for many years. What the addition of Biotech, Dublin enables is a significant increase in drug substance supply, which is critical as KEYTRUDA expands into new indications and increasingly into early disease settings. This will enable more patients to benefit in new countries, in new tumour types and in new combination therapies.
Q Talk us through the events you have had to mark the celebration of the site launch?
We had a wonderful series of events on the day of the opening on November 1. We were very fortunate to be joined by Rob Davis, CEO, Caroline Litchfield, the Chief Financial Officer and Sanat Chattopadhyay, the President of the Manufacturing Division among other MSD leaders. The first event was an informal ‘networking lunch’ with 32 Biotech colleagues who have all had a significant impact on our culture onsite. We had great fun getting to know each other and sharing stories about our experiences with the great people and culture in Biotech.
3Fed, watered and energised by the lunch we then embarked on a brief facility tour, which included a visit to the Biotech ‘Our Story’ History Wall, taking the opportunity to have our guests plant daffodil bulbs in preparation for next Spring’s ‘Daffodil Day’. We also completed a walk through of the viewing corridor of our manufacturing facility, and finally a visit to our centre of engineering analytics, where we shared some of the site’s digital capabilities and some of the great achievements on recent projects.
Later in the day, An Taoiseach Micheál Martin and other Irish and local leaders joined us on-site and we all celebrated the opening with an amazing townhall, which included the unveiling of the opening plaque for our new site!
4Before and after the day itself we had a series of celebratory lunches, and also an all site get-together afterwards, where we celebrated this wonderful milestone.
Q How has the atmosphere at the site been?
Everyone has been really excited to have this opening event; it was great to see the energy that the team got as their remarkable contributions and achievements were recognised by MSD senior leaders and indeed the Taoiseach.
Everybody has been, and is, so busy with important work, that sometimes you forget how crucial it is to take a step back, reflect and celebrate all that has been achieved â€“ and how amazing that is! We definitely had a chance to do exactly that with the opening.
I would like to acknowledge that the start-up of this facility was the fastest construction and start-up ever of a facility like this in Ireland or in MSD. That was achieved despite the terrible impact of the COVID pandemic. I would like to recognise the above and beyond contributions of everyone involved, both site and above site functions. Without your expertise, your dedication and your focus on our patients and what really matters, that would never have been possible.
So, thank you and well done!
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