United Therapeutics Takes Over Former Anheuser‑Busch Facility in Merrimack

It’s not every day you hear about a beer‑making complex turning into a biotech hub, but that’s exactly what happened in Merrimack, N.H. Earlier this month, the massive former Anheuser‑Busch plant—once bustling with suds and bottling lines—changed hands. The buyer? United Therapeutics Corporation, a company better known for organ‑transplant related medicines than lagers.

According to the Register of Deeds, the transaction covered roughly 300 acres along the Daniel Webster Highway. While the exact purchase price remains under wraps, United Therapeutics released a statement that reads like a roadmap of their growing presence in the region.

"United Therapeutics has acquired a nearly 300‑acre site on Daniel Webster Highway in Merrimack, New Hampshire, adding significantly to the company’s growing footprint in Southern New Hampshire and our operations in greater New England," the company said. In plain English, that means they’re adding another big piece to a puzzle that already includes a 80,000‑square‑foot R&D lab in Manchester’s Millyard, a corporate hangar at Concord Municipal Airport, and a 2025 acquisition of 45 Hartwell in Lexington, Mass.

Right now, United Therapeutics employs more than 80 scientists and other professionals in New Hampshire, many of whom are working on “organ manufacturing solutions” — a fancy way of saying they’re developing therapies that could one day grow organs in a lab. The new Merrimack site, the statement adds, will give them “substantial expansion of the company’s physical capacity in the state.” The details beyond that are, for now, tightly held.

For the community, the sale is a bittersweet reminder that the old brewery shut its doors back in December. Anheuser‑Busch didn’t just close this plant; it also pulled the plug on facilities in New Jersey and California, signaling a broader retreat from some manufacturing locations.

Local officials and residents are watching closely. On one hand, there’s nostalgia for the hum of brewing equipment that defined the area for decades. On the other, the promise of high‑tech jobs and research dollars feels like a fresh burst of optimism.

As United Therapeutics settles into its new home, Merrimack may soon hear a different kind of buzz—one that comes from scientific discovery rather than carbonation. Only time will tell how this transformation reshapes the local economy and the identity of the once‑industrial site.