Merck, a leading science and technology company, returned to organic sales growth in the second quarter of 2024. It reported that the Group net sales up organically by 1.7% to € 5.4 billion. EBITDA pre down 0.8% organically to € 1.5 billion against high comparative base. Healthcare and Electronics deliver organic sales growth.

EBITDA pre remained around stable organically compared with the year-earlier figure, which had been increased by one-time effects. Excluding these one-time effects in the year-earlier quarter, EBITDA pre would also have grown organically.

“We announced that we would gradually return to organic growth during the course of 2024. The second quarter shows our progress on this journey,” said Belén Garijo, Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck. “Our business dynamics as well as our assumptions point to growth also for the rest of the year. We are therefore raising our forecast for 2024 at Group level and for the Healthcare and Electronics business sectors.”

Thanks to the good business performance of Healthcare and Electronics, Group sales in the second quarter of 2024 increased by 1.7% organically. Foreign exchange effects, especially from the U.S. dollar, had a negative impact of 0.7% on sales development. Overall, Group sales increased by 0.9% to € 5,352 million.

EBITDA pre decreased organically by only 0.8% and amounted to € 1,509 million despite the higher comparative base of the year-earlier quarter, which included one-time effects. Moreover, a provision of a mid double-digit million euro amount for the termination of the xevinapant program had a negative impact on EBITDA pre in the second quarter of 2024. In addition, negative foreign exchange effects of 2.1% were incurred. The total decrease compared with the year-earlier quarter was 2.9%. Without the one-time effect from a patent agreement in OLEDs with UDC (Universal Display Corporation) in the year-earlier quarter and the xevinapant termination provision, EBITDA pre would have grown in the mid-single digit percentage range in the second quarter of 2024. The Group EBITDA pre margin was 28.2% and earnings per share pre were stable compared with the year-earlier quarter at € 2.20.

On July 31, 2024, Merck completed the acquisition of Mirus Bio, which had been announced in May 2024. Mirus Bio is a U.S. life science company that specializes in transfection reagents for the manufacture of viral vectors. With this US$ 600 million acquisition, Merck is complementing its portfolio for the development and manufacture of novel modalities such as cell and gene therapies.