Merck plant might come to Durham

Merck & Co. is considering building a $300 million vaccine manufacturing plant in Durham, but the New Jersey pharmaceutical company first wants a generous package of incentives from state and local officials. related Candidates slam Easley on economy Merck, the second-largest U.S. drug maker, has its eye on 256 acres in Durham's Treyburn Corporate Park. The company hasn't made a final decision on where to build a facility that would initially employ as many as 200 workers, company spokesman John Bloomfield said. Officials with Gov. Mike Easley's administration confirmed Thursday that they are negotiating with Merck on a package of tax breaks and other incentives. Officials declined to comment on the size of the package, which would likely also include money from the city and county of Durham. Easley plans to convene a special legislative session next week. He wants financing to help lure three major industrial projects to North Carolina, including Merck. The other prospects include a Boeing plant in Kinston and an expansion at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in Winston-Salem. Bloomfield declined to name other communities that have emerged as finalists in the nationwide site search Merck has been conducting for several months. But he expected a final decision by Merck senior management in the next several weeks. "The county and the state are still in intense discussions," said Ted Conner, vice president of economic development at the Durham Chamber of Commerce. "It's really incumbent on them to follow through on their commitments," Conner said. "Then the company will select Durham." Cari Boyce, a spokeswoman for Easley, confirmed that Merck will be on the agenda of a special legislative session scheduled Tuesday. Lawmakers expect Easley will seek additional money for Merck and the authority to purchase land for the company. Merck might also qualify for existing incentives, including a Job Development Investment Grant, which is based on state income taxes generated by new jobs, and money from the One North Carolina fund, which Easley can tap for deal-closing grants. Alan DeLisle, Durham's economic development director, said the city is considering extending free water and sewer service and cash incentives to lure Merck to Treyburn. The plant Merck is considering building would produce existing vaccines to immunize against childhood diseases, such as mumps, measles and chicken pox. At the earliest, it would open in 2008. Merck, which has developed and produced children's vaccines for at least 40 years, also is working on experimental vaccines to prevent shingles, severe infant diarrhea, AIDS and an infection that can trigger cervical cancer. If Durham is selected as the site for the new plant, the potential for further expansions exists as experimental vaccines receive regulatory approval, Bloomfield said. Merck already operates a pharmaceutical manufacturing and packaging plant in Wilson, where the company employs about 500. The Wilson plant produces oral drugs to treat a variety of conditions, including asthma, osteoporosis and high cholesterol. A decision to build a vaccine plant in Durham would not affect operations in Wilson, Bloomfield said. Established in 1982, Treyburn consists of about 1,800 acres north of Durham. The industrial park is already home to companies, including auto-transmission maker AW North Carolina, that occupy about 900 acres. The other half is vacant. "I hope ... [Merck] will go through with it," said Jim Hinkle, Treyburn's president. "We'd love to have them." The Merck project is an important development for Durham, said Ellen Reckhow, chairwoman of the Durham County Commissioners. "What they have committed to would be a major investment, but there's the potential for a lot larger investment in the years to come," Reckhow said. In recent years, many states have stepped up efforts to attract new pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturing facilities, said Arthur Pappas, who runs A.M. Pappas & Associates, a life science venture-capital firm in Durham. The fact that Merck is seriously considering Treyburn, Pappas said, "is a tremendous endorsement of all that is going on in [the Triangle] and of what is likely to go on in the future here." Recruiting biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturing plants has a "multiplier effect," said Barry Teater, a spokesman with the N.C. Biotechnology Center. Each manufacturing job created leads to three support and service jobs, Teater said