Head of Corporate Development and Business Development & Licensing, Merck
Sunil Patel is Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Development and Business Development & Licensing (BD&L) at Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada. In his current role, Sunil actively supports Merck’s CEO, Executive Team and Board of Directors.
Sunil leads all Corporate Development activities including mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions, financial evaluation & analysis, as well as the Competitive Intelligence and Alliance Management & Integration teams. He is also responsible for the company’s MRL Ventures Fund (MRLV) and all BD&L activities supporting Merck Research Laboratories including the Search & Evaluation and Transactions teams charged with identifying, assessing, and securing external scientific opportunities.
As the leader of Corporate Development, Sunil has directed many of Merck’s most significant portfolio shaping activities including the company’s sale and asset swap of its consumer business with Bayer and more recently the creation and spinoff of Organon (NYSE-OGN), into a public company. In addition, under his leadership, the BD&L team has executed multiple transactions that have shaped the company’s pipeline and product portfolio. These include such products as ADEMPAS®, LENVIMA®, LYNPARZA®, VERQUVO®, and WELIREG™, as well as multiple late-stage pipeline candidates.
Since starting at Merck as a marketing analyst in 1998, Sunil has held multiple roles of increasing responsibility spanning the commercial, licensing and business development organizations. During his time in Merck’s commercial organization, Sunil had specific responsibilities for Merck’s cardiovascular, HIV and antifungal products.
Sunil graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and earned his Master of Business Administration from the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University.