[8] Merck pioneered the commercial manufacture of morphine in the 19th century and for a time held a virtual monopoly on cocaine.

Merck was privately owned until going public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 1995 and is listed on the DAX index of Germany's top companies.

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 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.

[14][15] 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).

According to the company's account, 265 forced laborers were working in the plant in Darmstadt, most of them women from Russia and Poland.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

[27] Merck Korea received the "Leading Investor Award" at the 5th Korea-EU Industrial Cooperation Day in 2011.

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.

[31] 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.

[41] 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.

[43] In December of the same year, EMD Serono (Merck Group operations in the US and Canada) announced it would acquire Swiss-based Chord Therapeutics and its lead drug cladribine, used in generalised myasthenia gravis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.

[44] In September 2017, Merck said it is considering options for its consumer-health division, including a potential full or partial sale, or strategic partnership.

[45] In December Reuters reported that both Nestlé and private equity owners of Stada[46] were preparing bids for Merck's consumer health group.

[citation needed] On 7 December 2021, Merck, which uses the name EMD Electronics in North America, 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 industries supply chain problems.

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.

[56] 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.

[citation needed] The following is an illustration of the company's mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs and historical predecessors: Merck KGaA has faced criticism for continuing its business operations in Russia following the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Despite international sanctions and pressure on companies to exit the Russian market, Merck KGaA has maintained its presence, citing commitments to supplying essential medicines.

Sigmund Freud, author of Über Coca (1884), was an enthusiastic collaborator in Merck's cocaine research, though the methodological sophistication of his self-experimentation studies has been challenged.

[citation needed] Following the defeat of Germany in World War II, Merck was granted permission by the military government to produce drugs, pesticides, food preservatives, reagents, and fine chemicals for laboratory use.

[62] In February 2019, Merck also announced a partnership with GSK to develop and commercialize M7824 (bintrafusp alfa*), a new Immunotherapy with potential in various difficult-to-treat cancers.

[63] In 2020, Merck launched partnership with Pechoin in China to develop "high-tech herbal" skincare products.

The company serves customers in biotech, pharma, diagnostics, food safety, academia, and environmental.

After the acquisition of Intermolecular, its capabilities allow material combinations to be tested directly in the specific application environment accelerating learning cycles.