The Power of Collaboration
A look a Merck’s global network of M Lab™ Collaboration Centers
This July, I travelled to Massachusetts, USA, to tour one of Merck’s M Lab™ Collaboration Centers. I’ve been intrigued about the M Lab™ Collaboration Center concept – an exploratory environment where companies come to test new processes, facilitate process scale-up, troubleshoot unit operations, as well as collaborate with Merck scientists and engineers to establish solutions to tricky problems – and it was illuminating to experience one of the nine M Lab™ Collaboration Centers in person (the other eight facilities are located in South America, Europe, and Asia).
This global facility network is novel in pharma, and seems to resonate with industry. I could see how being able to test things out in a non-GMP environment might be a liberating experience – especially being able trial equipment while ensuring physical space is maximized and that set ups work efficiently.
While on site, The Medicine Maker produced a video with the M Lab™ Collaboration Center team to demonstrate how the labs work and the value they bring to the customer. Take a look here:
Richard Hodson
Publisher, The Medicine Maker