Merck Completes Acquisition of Antelliq Corporation to Become Leader in Emerging Digital Technology for Livestock and Companion Animals

KENILWORTH, N.J., April 1, 2019 – Merck [NYSE:MRK], known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Antelliq Corporation from funds advised by BC Partners. Today’s announcement positions the company as a global leader in animal health digital tracking, traceability and monitoring technology and complements the existing portfolio of vaccines and pharmaceuticals. Antelliq will be an operating unit within Merck Animal Health.

“The animal health industry is rapidly evolving with revolutionary digital solutions to manage the health and well-being of livestock and companion animals with animal identification, animal monitoring and smart data management as critical components of this technology,” said Rick DeLuca, president, Merck Animal Health. “Through our commitment to the Science of Healthier Animals®, we are dedicated to advancing the health and well-being of animals and the people who take care of them. We are excited to take this step forward with Antelliq and its brands, Allflex Livestock Intelligence, Sure Petcare and Biomark, as we add market-leading technology and services, which extend the range of solutions we can provide to our customers.”

Jean-Baptiste Wautier, partner at BC Partners, commented, “We are proud of Antelliq’s transformation over the past five years and believe that Merck is an ideal partner to work with Antelliq’s dynamic leadership team to support the next stage of its growth. As a truly innovative market leader, Antelliq has significant potential to continue spearheading development in the industry, as the use of intelligence, data and technology play an increasingly important role in animal health and care.”

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.

About Antelliq

Antelliq is the world’s leading animal intelligence group, providing world-class devices for animal identification, monitoring, and traceability. Our pioneering monitoring solutions deliver smart data products and services for the management and wellbeing of livestock, fish and pets. For over 60 years we have been satisfying customer needs in over 100 countries, supported by 22 production sites, spanning five continents. Antelliq has four regional innovation centers and many brands working collaboratively to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges: supporting farmers with real-time actionable information, providing a deeper connection with pets, and supporting conservation. Across Antelliq, our different brands provide the technology and intelligence that will be at the heart of overcoming these challenges. The name Antelliq is the embodiment of everything we stand for: intelligence connecting animals and people. For more information, visit www.antelliq.com.

About BC Partners

BC Partners is a leading international investment firm with over €20 billion of assets under management in private equity, private credit and real estate. Established in 1986, BC Partners has played an active role in developing the European buy-out market for three decades. Today, BC Partners executives operate across markets as an integrated team through the firm’s offices in North America and Europe. Since inception, BC Partners has completed 105 private equity investments in companies with a total enterprise value of €130 billion and is currently investing its tenth private equity fund. For more information, please visit www.bcpartners.com.

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 2018 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).