August 5, 2025

 

MSD Animal Health plant upgrade opens in New Zealand  

 

 

Global company MSD Animal Health has opened its production facility upgrade for livestock vaccines at Upper Hutt City, New Zealand marking the completion of a four-year, NZ$150 million (US$88.61 million) project.

 

MSD Animal Health's New Zealand business lead, Pauline Calvert, said the Upper Hutt site is a Centre of Excellence for clostridial vaccine production within the company's global structure.

 

"It will continue to supply local farmers with key vaccines such as our Covexin 10 and Multine brands and become a more significant exporter of vaccines to farmers in many other countries, including Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Australia," Calvert said.

 

"Right here in Upper Hutt, in heartland New Zealand, this site leads the way in producing quality vaccines for the world. But what's important for our primary sector is they are made in New Zealand for New Zealand farmers."

 

Local and global demand for livestock vaccines is growing as more farmers seek to reduce their dependence on antibiotics and focus more on disease prevention through vaccine usage.

 

Calvert said this project is a good example of the company's long-term commitment to the primary industry by investing in infrastructure and innovation in New Zealand.

 

"This is even more poignant when we are seeing other animal health companies reducing their footprint here," she said.

 

The upgraded plant was opened on July 28 by Associate Agriculture Minister and Minister for Biosecurity and Food Safety Andrew Hoggard, who commended MSD Animal Health's investment in New Zealand.

 

"I am a farmer, I use these vaccines myself and I understand how important they are from a farm productivity perspective. You are also exporting these vaccines to the rest of the world which is helping grow our economy too,"

 

Hoggard said MSD Animal Health's vaccines were great examples of the innovative product development that the government wants to encourage other businesses to strive for.

 

"We recognise there are a lot of challenges for innovative products to come to the market, through cumbersome regulatory standards.

 

"A review is underway and there will be a Bill coming to Parliament pretty shortly that will be addressing some of those challenges to make sure the type of innovation [MSD has] shown here doesn't have to jump through multiple hurdles to actually get into the market."