Merck KGaA

MERCK Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien operates in the healthcare, life science, and electronics sectors worldwide. It discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets pharmaceutical and biological prescription drugs to treat neurology and immunology, oncology, fertility, and cardiology metabolism and endocrinology. 

The company also supplies products, tools, and services for research laboratories, pharma and biotech production, and industrial and testing laboratories. In addition, it offers material for integrated circuits, liquid crystals, organic light-emitting diodes, photoresists, smart antenna, and liquid crystal glazing solutions, as well as effect pigments for use in automotive coatings, cosmetics, industrial, and plastic applications. It has strategic alliances with Pfizer Inc.; agreement with Novartis AG; and license agreements with Debiopharm International SA and MoonLake Immunotherapeutics AG. 

The company was founded in 1668 and is headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany. MERCK Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien is a subsidiary of E. Merck Kommanditgesellschaft.

Origins and confiscation

The roots of Merck reach back as far as the 17th century in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1668, Friedrich Jacob Merck, an apothecary, assumed ownership of the Engel-Apotheke in Darmstadt.

In 1816, Emanuel Merck, a descendant of the original founder, took over the pharmacy. Thanks to his scientific education he was successful in isolating and characterizing several different alkaloids in the pharmacy's laboratory, and by doing so also invented a number of drugs. He began the manufacture of these substances "in bulk" in 1827, touting them as a "Cabinet of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Innovations". He and his successors gradually built up a chemical-pharmaceutical factory that produced — in addition to raw materials for pharmaceutical preparations — a multitude of other chemicals and medicines. 

In 1891, Georg Merck established himself in the United States and set up Merck & Co. with Theodore Weicker in New York. Merck & Co. was confiscated following the First World War and set up as an independent company in the United States. Today, the US company, which operates as Merck Sharp and Dohme outside the U.S. and Canada, has about 68,000 employees in 120 countries. It is one of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies worldwide, larger than its German ancestor, which employs 60,334 people in 67 countries. While Merck in Darmstadt is the legal successor of the original Merck and retains the rights to the name "Merck" in all countries except the U.S. and Canada, it is sometimes known as the "German Merck" or "Merck Darmstadt" in North America. The company was formerly also referred to as “E. Merck”.

20th-century activities

Nazi years

In the years of the Nazi rule, the company was led by Karl Emanuel Merck who became a member of the Nazi party in 1933 and subsequently received the title of Wehrwirtschaftsführer. In addition, Merck was president of the Hessian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as performing an advisory function in the Expert Advisory Council for National Health of the NSDAP. 

During World War II, Merck was manufacturing war essential products such as narcotics, vitamins, biocides and other chemicals. According to the company's account, 265 forced labourers were working in the plant in Darmstadt, most of them women from Russia and Poland. Additionally, several hundred Fremdarbeiter from France and Belgium were employed throughout the war years. An air raid on 12 December 1944 destroyed nearly 70 percent of the plant and killed 55 employees.

Post-war

In 1973, Merck Ltd. acquired BDH Chemicals from the Glaxo Group.

In the early 1980s, Merck Group built a visitor centre at its Darmstadt headquarters that featured a pyramid.

Merck was legally named E. Merck oHG until 1995. In 1995 it was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and became a KGaA, legally named Merck KGaA.

Merck KGaA established its philanthropic foundation in 2008 called Merck Foundation and Rasha Kelej currently serves as its CEO.

2000 to 2009

On March 13, 2006, Merck announced a takeover bid for Schering AG, the world's largest producer of oral contraceptives. On March 23, 2006, Bayer AG made a supported offer for Schering and Merck decided to drop out of the bidding for the company. Schering is not to be confused with Schering-Plough which was once part of Schering AG but was acquired by Merck & Co. in 2009. In September 2006 the company announced a takeover bid of $13.2 billion for Serono SA, Switzerland's largest biotech firm. The deal included a buy-out of the Bertarelli family's 64.5% stake in Serono to be followed by a public tender offer for the remaining shares starting in November 2006. The combined company has an R&D budget of approximately $1.1 billion and sales of approximately $4.6 billion. It's approximately $2 billion in sales of biologics would make it 7th among pharmaceutical/biotech companies. The new entity, Merck Serono, began operations in 2007.

2010 onwards

In 2010, Merck took over Billerica-based Millipore Corporation for EUR 5.3 billion. It is now Merck's life science business unit. With the acquisition of Millipore, Merck is consolidating its US holdings and shutting down the Gibbstown facility and warehouse. Gibbstown operations will be transferred to the new Philadelphia office and Millipore headquarters. Merck Korea received the "Leading Investor Award" at the 5th Korea-EU Industrial Cooperation Day in 2011.

In December 2013, the company bought AZ Electronic Materials SA for about $2.6 billion in cash to increase its offering of speciality chemicals to the electronics industry. In September 2014 Merck halted the clinical development of two drug candidates in development with Oxygen Biotherapeutics. One drug candidate suffered a lack of success in patient recruitment, with its MUC1 antigen-specific cancer immunotherapy drug, tecemotide, missing its Phase I/II endpoint of increasing overall survival in patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer. Later in September, it was announced that the company would acquire Sigma-Aldrich for $17 billion. After the acquisition was completed in 2015, Merck had around 50,000 employees. In November 2014, Merck and Pfizer agreed on a deal for the latter to sell the former sharing rights to develop an experimental immunotherapy drug for a fee of $850 million. 

In October 2015, Merck revealed it would return the rights of the Kuvan drug to BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. The drug is effective in the treatment of the rare genetic disorder PKU, however, Merck is moving away from genetics into cancer treatment, immunology and neurology. In October, it was announced that Karl-Ludwig Kley, CEO of Merck since April 2007, would retire in April 2016, and be succeeded by Stefan Oschmann, who has been a member of the executive board since 2011. The company started building new facilities for its R&D operations and a new visitor centre at its Darmstadt site in the early 2010s by 2015 had torn down the site's pyramid as part of the renovations.

In April 2017, the company announced it had completed the acquisition of food safety testing company, BioControl Systems Inc. In August of the same year, the company announced the acquisition of Natrix Separations for an undisclosed sum. In April 2019, Merck announced it would acquire Versum Materials. The acquisition was completed in October 2019 and represented an equity value of about U$5.8 billion. In the same year, Merck also announced the acquisition of Intermolecular Inc, the California-based company for advanced materials. The acquisition was completed in September 2019 and represented an equity value of U$62 million. In February 2020, Merck announced the divestment of its Allergopharma Business to Dermapharm, under an unspecified fee. The deal includes Merck's Portfolio in Europe and parts of Asia, including China and India. In January 2021, MilliporeSigma announced it would acquire AmpTec to expand and enhance the business's mRNA vaccine capabilities as well as its treatment and diagnostics offerings. In March, its Performance Materials division changed its name to the Electronics division. In December of the same year, EMD Serono announced it would acquire Swiss-based Chord Therapeutics and its lead drug cladribine, used in generalised myasthenia gravis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.

Merck consumer-health

In September 2017, Merck said it is considering options for its consumer-health division, including a potential full or partial sale, or strategic partnership. An equity analyst estimated the unit could command a purchase price of €1.8 billion to €2.7 billion from a full sale. In December Reuters reported that both Nestlé and private equity owners of Stada were preparing bids for Merck's consumer health group. Days later, Reuters again reported that Perrigo was also preparing a bid for the division in the region of €4 billion. In April 2018, Reuters reported that generic drug manufacturer, Mylan was in advanced discussions to acquire the consumer health business for between €3.5–4 billion. Later in the month, Reuters reported that Procter & Gamble would purchase the division for €3.4 billion euros.

Name

Merck in Darmstadt is the sole legal successor of the original Merck and retains the rights to the trademark "Merck" in all countries except the U.S. and Canada, where the "EMD" brand is mostly used. In recent branding campaigns, the company has referred to itself as "the original Merck" and "the real Merck". The company was legally known as E. Merck oHG until 1995 when Merck KGaA became the main parent company and the former a holding company. Both oHG and KGaA are generic business entity-type designations and are not used in everyday speech or branding.

In 2015 Merck adopted a new logo to increase the visual differences between both companies, while also visualizing “vibrant science and technology” as the new company's brand. It has initiated litigation in several countries against its former subsidiary Merck & Co. over infringing the use of the Merck name. In 2016, the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom ruled that MSD had breached an agreement with its former parent company and that only Merck of Darmstadt is entitled to use the Merck name in the United Kingdom; the judge also held that MSD use of "Merck" as part of branding on its global websites was directed to the UK and infringed Merck's trade mark rights in the UK. In response, MSD has initiated counter-litigation in the United States. After those controversies, Merck also adopted a new logo for EMD. The same look was also given to the logos of EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma, and EMD Performance Materials divisions. Its corporate website is merckgroup.com in the world excluding U.S. and Canada, displaying the normal Merck logo in the header, and emdgroup.com in U.S. and Canada, displaying the use of its corporate name, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in the header and additionally displaying a disclaimer about trademark ownership in the footer.

On December 7, 2021, Merck, which uses the name EMD Electronics in North America, announced it would be investing $1 billion in a U.S. operations joint venture with Palantir Technologies to assist in solving some of the chip industry's supply chain problems. The plan is for sites in Pennsylvania, Texas, California, and Arizona.

Price fixing settlement

Generics UK paid a £12M out-of-court settlement with the Department of Health and Social Care of the UK over involvement in an alleged price and supply fixing cartel. The NHS alleges various drug companies exploited the oligopolistic market conditions, forcing the NHS to pay inflated prices. NHS fraud investigators believe there was a conspiracy to limit the supply of 30 of its most commonly prescribed drugs, including a class of penicillin antibiotics and to a generic version of best-selling ulcer treatment Zantac. The NHS has so far filed claims in relation to just three drugs, seeking damages of more than £150m, while the Serious Fraud Office is conducting a parallel investigation into the price-fixing allegations limited to the supply of blood-thinning pill warfarin and penicillin-based antibiotics. Homes and offices of executives at six firms, including Ranbaxy, Generics UK, Norton Healthcare, Goldshield and Regent-GM were raided by the SFO in May 2002.

“Responsibility is one of the core values of Merck. To us, being responsible means looking, listening and doing things better.”

“We believe it's important to take an active role in shaping the future. Our products and technologies are key to achieving this because they play a major role in helping solve global challenges.”