Company profile
SEC EDGAR ↗- Industry
- Pharmaceutical Preparations
- Listed
- NYSE: MRK
- Incorporated
- NJ
- Headquarters
- Rahway, NJ
- Fiscal year end
- Dec 31
Financials
FY2025- Revenue
- $65.0B
- Net income
- $18.3B
- Total assets
- $136.9B
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Total assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $65.0B | $18.3B | $136.9B |
| FY2024 | $64.2B | $17.1B | $117.1B |
| FY2023 | $60.1B | $377.0M | $106.7B |
| FY2022 | $59.3B | $14.5B | $109.2B |
| FY2021 | $48.7B | $13.0B | $105.7B |
| FY2020 | $41.5B | $7.07B | $91.6B |
Reported fiscal years from SEC filings (10-K) — SEC EDGAR ↗. Stratrix is a strategy publication, not a real-time financial data service.
The analyses
The Cannibalization Choice · Decision Forks
Merck Loaded $9.5 Billion of Debt Onto Organon and Pocketed $9 Billion on the Way Out
The story is a tidy strategic divorce: Merck shed slow-growth women's health to focus on oncology. The real move was a leveraged cash grab — Merck loaded ~$9.5 billion of debt onto Organon and pocketed ~$9 billion of it on the way out the door.
7 min
The Crisis Response · Crisis & Reinvention
Merck's Vioxx Recall Is Taught as a Model of Responsibility. The Paper Trail Says Otherwise.
The story is that Merck pulled Vioxx the moment it found cardiac risk. The paper trail says it found the first signal in 1999, got an FDA warning in 2001, and withdrew in 2004 — after five years and $100M-a-year in ads.
8 min
The Crisis Response · Decision Forks
Merck Paid $5.8 Billion for Vioxx and Admitted Almost Nothing. That Was the Plan.
Merck pulled Vioxx in 2004 over heart-attack risk, then paid out more than $5.8 billion across civil, criminal, and shareholder channels. The settlement that defined the era wasn't a surrender. It was an engineering project: pay everyone, admit nothing, and cap the bill.
8 min
The Moat Anatomy · Moat & Competition
Merck Already Survived Its Worst Drug. The Best One Is the Real Danger.
Vioxx peaked at $2.5B and nearly broke Merck. Keytruda now throws off $29.5B — 46% of all revenue — and its core patent expires in 2028. The comforting analogy is backwards: the blockbuster is the bigger threat, not the scandal.
8 min