How Merck uses patents to help maintain Keytruda’s exorbitant price; International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, April 13, 2026

Denise Ajiri and Antonio Cucho Gamboa, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ; How Merck uses patents to help maintain Keytruda’s exorbitant price

"Merck’s original patents for Keytruda are set to expire in 2028. But Merck, using a strategy known as “evergreening,” has filed hundreds of additional patents that could protect Keytruda’s dominance well beyond that year.

ICIJ analyzed 180 U.S. patent applications related to Keytruda, provided by the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), a nonprofit that examines inequities in the patent system. These were linked to 1,032 additional patent filings around the world tied to the drug. From this universe, ICIJ identified active U.S. patents that illustrate Merck’s strategy of maintaining market exclusivity.

Patents can have different status, including active, pending, abandoned, expired, or others. Explore Merck’s active U.S. Keytruda patents below."

Merck Falls After $2.54 Billion Gilead Verdict Is Tossed; Bloomberg, February 20, 2018

Susan Decker and Christopher Yasiejko, Bloomberg; Merck Falls After $2.54 Billion Gilead Verdict Is Tossed

"Merck & Co. fell after a federal judge tossed a record $2.54 billion verdict it had won against Gilead Sciences Inc. over a hepatitis treatment.

A federal jury in 2016 had said that Gilead owed Merck 10 percent of the sales of its Sovaldi and Harvoni hepatitis C drugs. District Court Judge Leonard Stark in Wilmington, Delaware, agreed Friday with Gilead’s argument that the Merck patent was invalid...

The verdict was the largest patent-infringement verdict in U.S. history, dwarfing the next biggest, a $1.67 billion verdict won by Johnson & Johnson against Abbott Laboratories that was later thrown out on appeal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The case is Idenix Pharmaceuticals LLC v. Gilead Sciences Inc., 14-846, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington)."