Merck KGaA (EMD Serono)
Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, which trades as EMD Serono in North America, sells the anti-PD-L1 antibody avelumab, cetuximab outside the United States and the MET inhibitor tepotinib, and bought SpringWorks Therapeutics in 2025 to add nirogacestat and mirdametinib for rare tumours.
Overview
Merck KGaA, the Darmstadt science and technology company that is distinct from the US Merck & Co., runs its healthcare business as EMD Serono in the United States and Canada. Its oncology medicines include avelumab (Bavencio), an anti-PD-L1 antibody used as maintenance in urothelial cancer and in Merkel cell carcinoma; cetuximab (Erbitux), which it markets outside North America; and tepotinib (Tepmetko) for MET exon 14-skipping non-small-cell lung cancer. In 2025 it acquired SpringWorks Therapeutics, bringing the gamma-secretase inhibitor nirogacestat for desmoid tumours and the MEK inhibitor mirdametinib for neurofibromatosis-related plexiform neurofibromas. Company facts are from FDA approval records and the SpringWorks acquisition announcement.
Scorecard
All companies- approved products +30
- targets +8
- modalities +4
- regions +6
- 24-month regulatory events +2
- registry trials +30
Avelumab is a PD-L1 blocker given as maintenance after chemotherapy for advanced bladder cancer, which lengthened survival by about seven months.
Cetuximab is a chimeric antibody that blocks the EGFR growth receptor. It is used with FOLFIRI or FOLFOX in RAS wild-type, left-sided bowel cancer, with encorafenib in BRAF V600E disease, with KRAS G12C inhibitors, and with radiation or chemotherapy in head and neck cancer; RAS-mutant tumours gain nothing and may be harmed, so RAS testing comes first.
Capmatinib and tepotinib are two pills for the roughly 3% of lung cancers with a MET exon 14 skipping mutation.
Nirogacestat is the first approved medicine for desmoid tumours, locally invasive growths that do not spread but can be crippling; it works by blocking Notch signalling.
Mirdametinib (Gomekli in the US, Ezmekly in Europe) is a MEK-blocking capsule or dispersible tablet for adults and children with neurofibromatosis type 1 whose plexiform neurofibromas cannot be removed surgically; it is the first such drug approved for adults.
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