By Cecilia Butini

Merck KGaA said Wednesday that it plans to spend 18 million euros ($20.5 million) to build a new laboratory in Buchs, Switzerland, to expand its reference-materials business and its research-and-development sector.

The German pharmaceutical, chemical and life-sciences company said the expansion will create about two dozen new jobs. The laboratory will be finished by the end of 2021 and 40 employees will move into the building at the beginning of 2022, the company said.

According to Merck, the facility will add to an existing production hub in Buchs, where the company already produces reference materials and bioanalytical reagents, among other products, employing 450 people. 



  Write to Cecilia Butini at cecilia.butini@wsj.com