Merck
By therapeutic area
| Therapeutic area | Premium | Deals |
|---|---|---|
| oncology | ×0.99 | 28 |
| immunology | ×0.70 | 3 |
By stage at signing
| Phase | Premium | Deals |
|---|---|---|
| phase 1 | ×0.93 | 9 |
| approved | ×1.27 | 9 |
| phase 2 | ×1.50 | 8 |
| preclinical | ×0.78 | 8 |
| phase 3 | ×0.70 | 3 |
| discovery | ×0.76 | 3 |
Strategy profile
Based on 15 disclosed transactions, Merck concentrates its licensing activity in Oncology, Cardiovascular, and Immunology. Merck pays a 0.96x discount to market median, with the strongest premiums in Oncology (0.99x). Their most common deal structure is Acquisition, with an average disclosed value of $3.6B. Most recent activity: 2026.
Premium by therapeutic area
How Merck pays relative to peer medians in each TA
Pipeline coverage & gaps
Merck has disclosed activity in 2 of 12 tracked therapeutic areas. Gaps may represent whitespace opportunities for licensors.
Deal type breakdown
How this buyer structures its transactions
| Deal type | Count | Avg upfront | Avg total value |
|---|---|---|---|
| AcquisitionPrimary | 8 | $2.3B | $5.2B |
| License | 6 | $229M | $1.7B |
| Collaboration | 1 | $20M | $2.2B |
Recent disclosed deals
| Year | Asset | Licensor | Indication | Phase | Upfront | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | ensifentrine | Verona Pharma | COPD | approved | — | $10.0B |
| 2026 | Terns Pharmaceuticals (including TERN-701) | Terns Pharmaceuticals | oncology | unknown | — | $6.7B |
| 2026 | CML-related oncology program | unnamed partner | chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) | unknown | — | $838M |
| 2026 | — | Quotient Therapeutics | inflammatory bowel disease | discovery | $20M | $2.2B |
| 2025 | CD388 (flu DFC acquisition) | Cidara Therapeutics | Influenza prevention | phase_3 | $9.2B | $9.2B |
| 2025 | ensifentrine | Verona Pharma plc | chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) | phase_3 | — | $10.0B |
| 2025 | SIRPα | Pyxis Oncology | GBM | preclinical | $77M | $809M |
| 2025 | HRS-5346 | Jiangsu Hengrui | Cardiovascular Disease (Lp(a)) | phase_1 | $200M | $2.0B |
| 2024 | solid_tumors | Modifi Biosciences | solid_tumors | preclinical | $30M | $1.3B |
| 2024 | solid_tumors | LaNova Medicines | solid_tumors | phase_2 | $588M | $3.3B |
| 2024 | retinal_disease | EyeBio | retinal_disease | phase_2 | $1.3B | $3.0B |
| 2024 | breast_her2 | Hansoh Pharmaceutical | breast_her2 | phase_2 | $118M | $1.9B |
| 2024 | hematologic_malignancies | Curon Biopharmaceutical | hematologic_malignancies | phase_1 | $700M | $1.3B |
| 2024 | solid_tumors | Abceutics | solid_tumors | preclinical | $208M | $208M |
| 2024 | lung_nsclc | Hengrui Medicine | lung_nsclc | phase_3 | $160M | $1.6B |
How this is computed
For each Merck deal we find the median total deal value of comparable transactions (same therapeutic area + phase, falling back to TA-only with ≥3 peers). The buyer’s deal divided by the peer median is the per-deal premium. We trim outliers, take the trimmed mean, and clamp to [0.7×, 1.5×] to reject data errors. Confidence scales with sample size.
Trimmed mean of 40 disclosed deal premiums vs. peer medians. Raw premium 0.958, clamped to [0.7, 1.5].