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July 25, 2018 12:00 pm ET

KENILWORTH, N.J., July 25,, 2018 — Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today noted and applauded the efforts of the many health care workers and volunteers who responded to the recent outbreak of the Ebola Zaire virus in the DRC. Yesterday, the WHO declared that the Ebola outbreak in the DRC has ended.

“All of us at Merck acknowledge with profound admiration the extraordinary efforts of the more than one thousand health care workers and volunteers who responded to this latest outbreak in the DRC,” said Dr. Roger M. Perlmutter, president, Merck Research Laboratories. “We are grateful for their service, courage and commitment.”

On May 8, 2018, Merck was notified of a new outbreak of Zaire Ebola Virus in the DRC. Merck, representatives from the WHO, MSF and the DRC government collaborated to supply and support the administration of the investigational V920 Ebola Zaire virus vaccine under WHO’s Expanded Access clinical protocol.

About V920 (rVSV∆G-ZEBOV-GP)

V920 was initially engineered by scientists from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory and subsequently licensed to a subsidiary of NewLink Genetics Corporation. In late 2014, when the peak of the Ebola outbreak in western Africa was at its worst, Merck licensed V920 from NewLink Genetics, with the goal of accelerating the development, licensure, and availability of this candidate vaccine. Since that time, Merck has been responsible for research, development, manufacturing, and regulatory efforts in support of V920. The company has worked closely with NewLink Genetics and a number of external collaborators to enable a broad clinical development program with additional funding from the US Government, including the Department of Health and Human Service’s Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA) and the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Program/Joint Vaccination Acquisition Program (DTRA/JVAP), among others. Additional research evaluating V920 is ongoing. Throughout this period, Merck has sought to accelerate the continued development, production and, if licensed, distribution of the vaccine.

About Merck

For more than a century, Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and communities around the world – including cancer, cardio-metabolic diseases, emerging animal diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and infectious diseases including HIV and Ebola. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA

This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline products that the products will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s Internet site (www.sec.gov).

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