October 14, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck KgaA , in addition to recent restructuring, today that is rebranding itself worldwide.
The company has launched a new logo and simplified its naming, which outside the U.S. and Canada will now operate simply as Merck. This is a part of the company’s “Fit for 2018” strategic transformation. Two independent divisions, Merck Serono and Merck Millipore, will stop functioning as separate divisions. Merck Serono will become part of Merck’s biopharmaceutical business. Merck Millipore will become part of Merck’s life science business.
“Following the two major acquisitions, the Merck Serono and Merck Millipore brands helped us to position the duality of existing and acquired businesses in the marketplace,” Karl-Ludwig Kley, chairman of the executive board and chief executive officer said in a statement. “We succeeded in doing so. That’s why we are returning to the brand that we have been known under for nearly 350 years.”
In the U.S. and Canada, the company indicates that the new corporate logo is supposed to create “a strong visual link to the Merck businesses,” which includes a multi-colored “M” in the Merck logo. The U.S. company, Merck & Co. , holds the rights to the Merck name in the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., German-based Merck will still run as EMD Serono in the biopharma area, and in the high-tech materials business, as EMD Performance Materials. EMD Millipore will continue in the life science business in the U.S.
Yesterday Merck KGaA announced that Stefan Oschmann will be the new chairman of the executive board and chief executive officer, replacing Kley on April 29, 2016. Kley will retire. Extensive restructuring has already gone on, with the healthcare business now focusing on three strategies: driving key pipeline projects, maximizing its existing portfolio, and expanding into growing markets.
Merck has been pushing its oncology pipeline as sales for its best-selling multiple sclerosis (MS) drug, Rebif, declines. According to Luciano Rossetti, head of the company’s global research and development, Merck Serono has about 80 percent of its pipeline focused on oncology and immuno-oncology.
That pipeline includes avelumab, developed with Pfizer Inc. , which is currently in a Phase III clinical trial for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and has been fast-tracked by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Merckel cell carcinoma. It also has two Phase III trials for evofosfamide for pancreatic cancer and soft tissue sarcoma.
“Merck has fundamentally changed over the past ten years,” said Kley in a statement. “We have developed from a classic supplier of pharmaceuticals and chemicals into a global technology company. With our unique combination of highly specialized biopharmaceutical, life science and materials businesses, we are in a position today to offer solutions to support global megatrends such as health and digitizations.”
Although Merck KGaA and Merck & Co. have historic roots, the companies have been under separate ownership since World War I. Merck KGaA was founded in Germany in 1668. Imports to the U.S. led to the establishment of an office in New York in 1887, which became Merck & Co. in 1891. The separation of the two companies occurred in 1917.
To simplify: Merck KGaA, will now operate as Merck everywhere in the world except the U.S. and Canada. There, they will operate under the brands EMD Serono, EMD Millipore and EMD Performance Materials.
U.S.-based Merck & Co. holds the trademark for Merck in the U.S. and Canada. In the rest of the world, Merck & Co. functions under different names.
