Merck Looks to Breathe New Life into Post-Keytruda Pipeline with $10 Billion Verona Deal
Jul/09/2025
As patent cliffs loom for its $30 billion cancer juggernaut Keytruda, Merck & Co. is preparing for life after 2028 with strategic acquisitions, the latest being a planned $10 billion purchase of UK-based Verona Pharma. The potential deal — Merck’s largest since acquiring Prometheus Biosciences in 2023 — would secure access to Verona’s star asset, Ohtuvayre, a novel inhaled non-steroidal therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), recently approved for use in the U.S. With over 16 million Americans affected by COPD and analysts projecting Ohtuvayre’s global sales to reach $4 billion annually by 2035, the acquisition underscores Merck’s urgent pivot toward new revenue streams. This follows a string of high-stakes plays, including a $2 billion licensing pact with Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals and talks to buy Swiss biotech MoonLake Immunotherapeutics. Merck, rooted in a 17th-century German apothecary and now an American pharmaceutical heavyweight with $64 billion in annual revenues and operations in over 100 countries, faces a critical juncture. With nearly half its earnings tied to Keytruda, the company is betting on strategic biotech expansions to preserve its dominance in the post-patent era. Following table shows list of trademark applications filed in june in the US by Merck Sharp & Dohme , a subsidiary that operates as part of Merck’s international division, reflecting the company’s parallel effort to safeguard and commercialize its expanding global therapeutic portfolio.
