Lonza agreed to acquire five US CDMO manufacturing sites from Merck KGaA, expanding Lonza’s footprint to nine sites in the country and adding roughly 1,100 employees. The deal strengthens Lonza’s end-to-end capabilities for areas such as bioconjugation, payload-linkers and viral vectors, supporting customers from clinical through commercial manufacturing. The transaction is valued in the low- to mid-triple-digit millions of Swiss francs and is expected to close in mid-2027. Merck KGaA will focus on life science and downstream offerings while continuing to supply consumables and technologies; BioReliance Contract Testing Services is excluded. Lonza framed the move as increasing resilience and capacity in a market facing growing demand for complex biologics and cell & gene therapy manufacturing.