The story
Founded by Friedrich Jacob Merck, Carl Merck, Georg Merck, Heinrich Emanuel Merck and Wilhelm Merck in 1668, in Darmstadt.1
Origins and confiscation
The roots of Merck reach back as far as the 17th century in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (now a part of Germany). In 1668, Friedrich Jacob Merck, an apothecary, assumed ownership of the Engel-Apotheke (lit. 'Angel Pharmacy') 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 (from 1890) medicines.
In 1891, Georg(e) 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 (MSD) outside the U.S. and Canada, has about 68,000 employees (December 2021) 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 (December 2021). 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" (Emanuel Merck).
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 ("Sachverständigenrat für Volksgesundheit") of the Nazi Party. 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 laborers were working in the plant in Darmstadt, most of them women from Russia and Poland. Additionally, several hundred Fremdarbeiter ("foreign workers") 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 center at its Darmstadt headquarters that featured a pyramid. The pyramid was demolished in 2014.
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.
2000 to 2009
On 13 March 2006, Merck announced a takeover bid for Schering AG, the world's largest producer of oral contraceptives. On 23 March 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. Its approximately $2 billion in sales of biologics would make it seventh among pharmaceutical/biotech companies. The new entity, Merck Serono, began operations in 2007.
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Merck KGaA established its philanthropic foundation in 2008 called Merck Foundation. Rasha Kelej currently serves as its CEO.
2010 onwards
In 2010, Merck took over Billerica (MA) based Millipore Corporation for EUR 5.3 billion (US$7.2 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 (AZEM) for about $2.6 billion in cash to increase its offering of specialty 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 (L-BLP25), 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 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 center at its Darmstadt site in the early 2010s. By 2015 the site's pyramid had been torn down 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 has 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 businesses mRNA vaccine capabilities as well as its treatment and diagnostics offerings. In March, its Performance Materials division changed name to Electronics division. In December of the same year, Merck KGaA announced it would acquire Swiss-based Chord Therapeutics and its lead drug cladribine, used in generalised myasthenia gravis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.
The company opened a large facility to support the semiconductor industry in Kaohsiung in 2025.
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 ($4.7 billion to $4.8 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 (£3–3.4 billion). Later in the month, Reuters reported that Procter & Gamble would purchase the division for €3.4 billion euros (£2.96 billion; $4.2 billion).
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 "EMD" brand is mostly used (it was introduced alongside Merck's 2001 logo). 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.
In 2024, the media reported on how protesters were still confusing the US and German Mercks.
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. (MSD) over infringing 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's use of "Merck" as part of branding on its global websites were 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 (renamed EMD Electronics in March 2021) divisions. Its corporate website is merckgroup.com in the world excluding U.S. and Canada, displaying its normal Merck logo in the header, and emdgroup.com in U.S. and Canada, displaying use of its corporate name, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in the header and additionally displaying a disclaimer about trademark ownership in the footer.
On 7 December 2021, Merck, which uses the name EMD Electronics for its North American electronics business, announced they 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 (Merck's former British subsidiary, the global Generics business being sold on 2 October 2007) 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 drugs 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 (SFO) 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.
Acquisition history
The following is an illustration of the company's mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs and historical predecessors:
From Wikipedia’s article on Merck Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5