Celgene Corporation has agreed to acquire Merck & Co. Inc.’s former site in Summit, New Jersey. The City of Summit, NJ has confirmed that the former Merck & Co., Inc. campus located at 556 Morris Ave. in Summit is under contract by Celgene Corporation. The search for a purchaser for the campus has been underway since Merck announced plans in October 2013 that it planned to move its global headquarters to Kenilworth, New Jersey.

The 556 Morris Ave. site includes research and development facilities, laboratory and support buildings, manufacturing capabilities, storage, warehouse buildings, and administrative office space. The site has approximately 850,000 square feet of administrative office space and 450,000 square feet of R&D space.

Further information on when and how the campus will be used by Celgene will be provided by the City of Summit as it becomes available over the next few months.

Celgene is currently based in Summit, New Jersey, at another nearby location. The Morris Avenue site, being acquired by Celgene, has a long history in the pharmaceutical industry. The site has been occupied for R&D, laboratory and pharmaceutical manufacturing uses since 1937. The site was occupied by Ciba Geigy and it became part of Novartis as part of the1997 merger between the pharmaceutical operations of Ciba-Geigy Corporation and Sandoz Corporation, which became Novartis. Novartis later sold the facility to Schering-Plough in 2000, and Merck & Co. acquired Schering-Plough in 2009.

Source: City of Summit, New Jersey