In July 2025, the Company approved a new restructuring program (2025 Restructuring Program) designed to position the Company for its next chapter of growth and to successfully advance its pipeline and launch new products across multiple therapeutic areas. As part of this program, the Company expects to eliminate certain positions in sales and administrative organizations, as well as research and development. The Company will, however, continue to hire employees into new roles across all strategic growth areas of the business. In addition, the Company will reduce its global real estate footprint and continue to optimize its manufacturing network, aligning the geography of its global manufacturing footprint to its customers and reflecting changes in the Company’s business. Most actions contemplated under the 2025 Restructuring Program are expected to be largely completed by the end of 2027, with the exception of certain manufacturing actions, which are expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2029. The cumulative pretax costs to be incurred by the Company to implement the program are estimated to be approximately $3.0 billion, of which approximately 60% will be cash, relating primarily to employee separation expense and contractual termination costs. The remainder of the costs will be non-cash, relating primarily to the accelerated depreciation of facilities. The Company recorded total pretax costs of $2.0 billion in 2025 related to the 2025 Restructuring Program, which includes charges of $910 million to Cost of sales for the accelerated depreciation of manufacturing lines at two sites.

In January 2024, the Company approved a restructuring program (2024 Restructuring Program) intended to continue the optimization of the Company’s Human Health global manufacturing network as the future pipeline shifts to new modalities and also optimize the Animal Health global manufacturing network to improve supply reliability and increase efficiency. The actions contemplated under the 2024 Restructuring Program are expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2031, with the cumulative pretax costs to be incurred by the Company to implement the program estimated to be approximately $4.0 billion. Approximately 50% of the cumulative pretax costs will be non-cash, relating primarily to the accelerated depreciation of facilities to be closed or divested. The remainder of the costs will result in cash outlays, relating primarily to facility shut-down costs. The Company recorded total pretax costs of $539 million and $888 million in 2025 and 2024, respectively, related to the 2024 Restructuring Program, bringing total cumulative pretax costs incurred through December 31, 2025 to $1.6 billion.

In 2019, Merck approved a global restructuring program (2019 Restructuring Program) as part of a worldwide initiative focused on optimizing the Company’s manufacturing and supply network, as well as reducing its global real estate footprint. The actions under the 2019 Restructuring Program were substantially complete at the end of 2023 and, as of January 1, 2024, any remaining activities are being accounted for as part of the 2024 Restructuring Program.


	Accelerated Depreciation		Separation Costs		Other Exit Costs		Total
Year Ended December 31, 2025
2025 Restructuring Program
Cost of sales	$	910	$	—	$	322	$	1,232
Selling, general and administrative	—		—		2		2
Research and development	—		—		175		175
Restructuring costs	—		548		55		603
	910		548		554		2,012
2024 Restructuring Program
Cost of sales	247		—		5		252
Selling, general and administrative	—		—		1		1
Restructuring costs	—		61		225		286
	247		61		231		539
	$	1,157	$	609	$	785	$	2,551
Year Ended December 31, 2024
2024 Restructuring Program
Cost of sales	$	254	$	—	$	241	$	495
Selling, general and administrative	—		—		83		83
Research and development	—		—		1		1
Restructuring costs	—		122		187		309
	$	254	$	122	$	512	$	888
Year Ended December 31, 2023
2024 Restructuring Program
Cost of sales	$	—	$	—	$	62	$	62
Restructuring costs	—		115		13		128
	—		115		75		190
2019 Restructuring Program
Cost of sales	131		—		18		149
Selling, general and administrative	9		—		113		122
Research and development	—		—		1		1
Restructuring costs	—		339		132		471
	140		339		264		743
	$	140	$	454	$	339	$	933

Accelerated depreciation costs primarily relate to manufacturing, research and administrative facilities to be fully or partially closed or divested and equipment to be disposed of as part of the programs. Accelerated depreciation costs represent the difference between the depreciation expense to be recognized over the revised useful life of the asset, based upon the anticipated date the site will be closed or divested or the equipment disposed of, and depreciation expense as determined utilizing the useful life prior to the restructuring actions. All the sites will continue to operate up through the respective closure dates and, since future undiscounted cash flows are sufficient to recover the respective book values, Merck is recording accelerated depreciation over the revised useful life of the site assets. Anticipated site closure dates, particularly related to manufacturing locations, have been and may continue to be adjusted to reflect changes resulting from regulatory or other factors.

Other exit costs in 2025, 2024 and 2023 include asset impairment, facility shut-down, contractual termination, and other related costs, as well as pretax gains and losses resulting from the sales of facilities and related assets. Additionally, other activity includes certain employee-related costs associated with pension and other postretirement benefit plans (see Note 13) and share-based compensation.


	Accelerated Depreciation		Separation Costs		Other Exit Costs		Total
2025 Restructuring Program
Restructuring reserves January 1, 2025	$	—	$	—	$	—	$	—
Expenses	910		548		554		2,012
(Payments) receipts, net	—		(46)		(50)		(96)
Non-cash activity	(910)		—		(216)		(1,126)
Restructuring reserves December 31, 2025	$	—	$	502	$	288	$	790
2024 Restructuring Program
Restructuring reserves January 1, 2024	$	—	$	681	$	31	$	712
Expenses	254		122		512		888
(Payments) receipts, net	—		(239)		(206)		(445)
Non-cash activity	(254)		—		(337)		(591)
Restructuring reserves December 31, 2024	—		564		—		564
Expenses	247		61		231		539
(Payments) receipts, net	—		(119)		(210)		(329)
Non-cash activity	(247)		—		(21)		(268)
Restructuring reserves December 31, 2025	$	—	$	506	$	—	$	506