Profile

Merck & Co., Inc., d.b.a. Merck Sharp & Dohme outside the United States and Canada, is an American multinational pharmaceutical company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Merck is incorporated in New Jersey. In 1887 a German-born, long-time Merck employee, Theodore Weicker, went to the United States to represent the Darmstadt firm. In 1891, with a capital of $200,000 received from E. Merck, Weicker started the American Merck & Co, with headquarters in lower Manhattan. That year George Merck, the twenty-three-year- old son of the then head of E. Merck joined Weicker in New York. The company was established as the United States subsidiary of the German company Merck, which was founded in 1668 by the Merck family. Merck & Co. was expropriated by the US government during World War I and subsequently established as an independent American company in 1917. While it operates as Merck & Co. in the United States and Canada, the original Merck based in Darmstadt holds the rights to the Merck name everywhere else. Merck & Co. is the world's seventh largest pharmaceutical company by market capitalization and revenue. Its headquarters is located in Kenilworth, New Jersey. The company ranked No. 78 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.