AGM 2026

Apr 24, 2026

Dear ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board, I would like to warmly welcome all of you here at Jahrhunderthalle. I hereby call the Annual General Meeting 2026 of Merck KGaA to order. It's a particular pleasure to be able to welcome you personally here in this in-person AGM. The last one took place in 2019, I remember it, here in the same place. My name is Michael Kleinemeier, and as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, I am also chairing this annual general meeting. First, I would like to welcome you, our shareholders and shareholder representatives. The large number of participants emphasizes how interested you are in our company. I also welcome Mr. Baillou and Mr. Dr. Büchele, who serve on the Board of Merck KGaA as Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively, in addition to being members of the Supervisory Board. Finally, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the representatives of our auditor, Deloitte GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Munich. A general note. Where the masculine form is used to refer to people in today's AGM, this is not intended to be gender specific, but is used solely for the sake of clarity. We want to do this for the sake of a clear language without doing any evaluation or without marginalizing anybody. Together with me on the podium are the Head of the Executive Board, Ms. Belén Garijo, the Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Electronics, Dr. Kai Beckmann. Our CEO of Healthcare, Danny Bar-Zohar. The first time at this annual general meeting, our Chief People Officer, Ms. Khadija Ben Hammada. Our Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Helene von Roeder. Our CEO Life Science, Mr. Jean-Charles Wirth. Also the first time for you here on stage and to your left, our Group General Counsel, Dr. Tina Sandmann, and our officiating notary, Dr. Carsten Angersbach. He will keep the minutes of this meeting. The members of the Supervisory Board, I'd like to welcome them as well. They're here in full, and they've also taken their seat on stage. Finally, I would like to extend a welcome to the guests and the proxies appointed by the company. Dear ladies and gentlemen, let me first address a few formal matters. The annual general meeting was convened through a publication in the Federal Gazette on March 12, 2026, in the required form and within the stipulated period. A printout of the notice of the meeting is attached to the minutes prepared by the notary. The information stipulated by Section 125 of the German Stock Corporation Act was submitted within the stipulated period and as prescribed by law. Moreover, the notice of this annual general meeting was forwarded to those media that can be assumed to disseminate information throughout the entire European Union. Please refer to the notice convening today's annual general meeting for the wording of the agenda. You can review the convening notice and the information stipulated by Section 125 of the German Stock Corporation Act on the display boards. They are positioned next to the staircases on the ground floor and at the rear of the assembly hall on the first floor. The company has not received any motions to supplement today's agenda. Shareholders have not made any use of the possibility to submit countermotions to the company prior to this annual general meeting. Since the AGM has first been convened, the following documents are available on the website: the annual financial statements for fiscal year 2025, including the proposal of the executive board for the appropriation of the net retained profit; the consolidated financial statements; the combined management report for Merck KGaA and the group; the report of the supervision board; as well as the documents and information specified in Section 124 A of the German Stock Corporation Act. In addition, these documents can be viewed throughout the AGM on the display boards positioned next to the staircase on the ground floor. A copy of all documents is also with the notary. The assembly rooms as defined by the Stock Corporation Act comprise not only this auditorium on the first floor up to the stairs, but also the foyer on the ground floor, including all the adjacent rooms accessible from there. In the rooms on the ground floor, you can follow the contributions made in the auditorium with the loudspeakers in German. However, the company cannot guarantee that the monitors and sound system will function properly outside this hall on the first floor up to the stairs. All shareholders in the assembly room are considered to be attending this annual general meeting. However, I would like to point out that the votes can also be cast in this auditorium on the first floor. If you would like to assume your rights to information, to speak, or to submit a motion or an objection, you can only do so in this auditorium on the first floor. The same applies to declarations to the notary. Today's AGM will also be publicly broadcast in full on the internet. After the annual general meeting, recordings of my introductory remarks, of the oral report of the Supervisory Board, and the speech by the Chair of the Executive Board will be available on the internet. Video and sound recordings as well as photography are not permitted in the auditorium. I would also like to ask you to support the uninterrupted course of the annual general meeting by requesting that you switch off or mute your mobile phones here in this auditorium. Throughout the general debate, you may make statements on all items on today's agenda in German. You can request to speak during the whole debate. Requests to speak are only possible in this auditorium. If you wish to speak, please register submitting your admission credentials at the speaker's registration desk, which is here in the front of this room to your left. An employee of the company will register your request to speak, and you have to present your contributions in wording. I will call you individually to speak and ask you to come to the lectern here to the left in front of the stage. I hope that we'll be able to continue the tradition of holding our AGM in an objective and relaxed atmosphere, as was the case in past years, and that we'll have fruitful discussions appropriately conducted by all speakers. In the interest of timely completion of the AGM, as in the previous years, we'll discuss the agenda in the form of a general debate. In other words, any item on the agenda can be addressed at any time during the debate. As previously announced, we have published the speech by Ms. Belén Garijo on the sixteenth of April 2026 on the website of the company. This way you can refer to the contents of the speech in your contributions. If you have any motions regarding the rules of procedure, please indicate this when requesting to speak. Please briefly state the subject of the motion, give your name, and present your admission credentials. Please provide the staff member at the registration desk with a full text of the motion if possible. This will allow us to determine how to proceed with the motion, in particular, whether you should be given priority to speak. To ensure the meeting proceeds in an orderly manner, I will only give the floor to those shareholders and shareholder representatives who have registered to speak at the registration desk. The attendance list is currently being prepared. As soon as I receive it, I will announce the physical presence. Attendance. The electronic attendance list is updated continuously and is available to your inspection at the speaker's registration desk after the initial attendance has been announced. Registered shareholders and shareholder representatives were able to exercise their voting rights in advance to the annual general meeting by postal vote or by granting a proxy and issuing instructions to the proxies appointed by the company or to third parties. Shareholders were able to exercise their voting rights, in particular, in addition to the traditional option of using a form via electronic communication using the investor portal. To this end, shareholders and their representatives were able to participate in the vote by means of electronic postal voting, including those through proxies. Furthermore, the investor portal allowed shareholders to grant proxies to third parties, as well as to issue proxies and instructions to the company's proxies. Proxies and instructions to the company's proxy holders. Proxies to third parties and postal votes could be submitted or revoked via the investor portal until its closure on the 23rd of April 2026 at 24:00 Central European Summer Time. Now the investor portal can no longer be used. Details regarding the exercise of voting rights and the procedure for casting votes by proxy are published in the notice convening the annual general meeting in the Federal Gazette. Please note that personal attendance at today's annual general meeting constitutes a revocation of any postal votes previously cast, as well as of any powers of attorney and instructions issued to the company's proxy representatives. It is my duty as chairman of this AGM to specify the manner and order of voting. As at past AGMs, voting will be based on the so-called addition procedure. That means the votes cast in favor and the votes against the proposed results will be counted. Abstentions do not have any impact on the result and are therefore not counted separately. Voting takes place in one voting session after all agenda items have been dealt with. This year, we will vote electronically using tablets. I will explain the voting procedure in detail before we actually proceed to vote. Please note that you needed to present all your admission credentials at the entrance and that all staff at the entrance must have scanned the QR codes on all admission credentials. If you have not presented all your access credentials, you may encounter problems during the voting process. Shareholders and shareholder representatives who wish to leave the meeting prematurely may also authorize a third party or the proxies appointed by the company to exercise their voting rights. At the shareholders and voting rights desk in the entrance area, as well as using the tablets before the exits, you can authorize a third party to grant powers of attorney and issue instructions to the proxies appointed by the company. Your proxy can also exercise the voting rights if they have received instructions along with this power of attorney. For organizational reasons, this should be done timely before starting the voting process. If you are directly authorizing another attendee, please give them your admission credentials at the corresponding powers of attorney. For this case, you will have forms for powers of attorney ready for you. You can use the forms by completely filling them in, signing them in text form according to paragraph 126 B of the German Civil Code. If you give power of attorney to another participant, please hand them over your admission credentials. If you're not interested in having a proxy, please scan out with your credentials, your votes will be removed. With regard to the protection of personal data, please refer to the privacy policy included in the publicly loaned convening on the annual general meeting under the AGM website. This AGM, as you can hear, will be conducted in German. This is true for all contributions of the shareholders and their representatives. Some members of the executive board will make their contribution in English, they are translated simultaneously into German. In the auditorium on the first floor, all contributions will be broadcast via loudspeakers in their original language. If you would like to listen to a simultaneous post translation, you could collect headphones for that purpose at the stairs on both sides of the auditorium. Outside of the auditorium on the first floor, especially in the assembly rooms on the ground floor, the proceedings will be broadcast via loudspeakers in German only. This means that on the ground floor, you will hear contributions made in English and their German translation. Please note that the headphones do not work on the ground floor. You're offered 2 audio channels. The German translation of the AGM can be followed in channel number 1, the English translation of the AGM in channel 2. If you require headphones and have not yet received a pair, please collect them from the distribution desks in the auditorium on the first floor next to the stairwells. If you encounter any problems using the headphones, please contact the staff at the distribution desks in the auditorium on the first floor. Subsequent to these introductory remarks, we will now begin with the agenda, and I will call up agenda items 1 to 7. The agenda, including the proposed resolutions by management, have been published in the Federal Gazette. Let me begin with agenda item number 1: presentation of the annual financial statements approved by the Supervisory Board, as well as the consolidated financial statements approved by the Supervisory Board and a combined management report, including the explanatory report on the information in accordance with Section 289 A and Section 315 A of the German Commercial Code HGB for fiscal year 2025, and the report of the Supervisory Board. I ascertain the following. The documents have been available on the AGM's website since the date on which the AGM was convened and can still be accessed there. Additionally, you can inspect these documents electronically on the display boards positioned next to the stairs on the ground floor and at the rear of this auditorium on the first floor. The annual financial statement of Merck KGaA, drawn up by the executive board as well as the combined management report, were audited by Deloitte GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Munich. The same applies to the consolidated financial statements prepared for the Merck Group in accordance with IFRS and the applicable commercial law principles. The audits did not lead to any objections. The auditors issued unqualified audit opinions of the annual financial statements and the combined management report, as well on the consolidated financial statements. In addition, Deloitte audited the calculation of Merck KGaA's participation in the profits of E. Merck KG in accordance with Article 27, paragraph 2 of the articles of association. The annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements, and the combined management reports, as well as the corresponding audit reports of the auditors were presented and distributed to the Supervisory Board. In accordance with Article 14, paragraph 2 of the articles of association, the Supervisory Board examined the annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements, and the combined management report, as well as the report of the auditor presented in accordance with Article 27, paragraph 2 of the articles of association. On completion of its examination at its meeting on February 27, 2026, the Supervisory Board raised no objections and thus approved the annual financial statements of Merck KGaA, as well as the consolidated financial statements as of the Group and the combined management report, as well as the report presented by the auditors in accordance with Article 27, paragraph 2 of the article of association. Ladies and gentlemen, let's continue with the report of the Supervisory Board. You'll find the full report on pages 409 to 415 of the annual report for 2025. Allow me to highlight the following. The cooperation with the Executive Board in fiscal year 2025 was again characterized by intensive trusting exchange. The Executive Board provided the Supervisory Board with regular written and verbal reports on the business development of Merck KGaA and the Merck Group. In particular, the Supervisory Board was informed about the market and sales situation of the company against the backdrop of macroeconomic development. In particular, the Supervisory Board was informed about the financial position of the company and its subsidiaries, along with their earnings development, as well as the corporate planning. The quarter reporting covered revenue and earnings for the Merck Group as a whole, as well as for each of the individual business sectors. Apart from the Supervisory Board meeting, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board will also maintain a regular exchange of information with the Chair of the Executive Board. Barbara Lambert, Head of the Audit Committee, submitted a thorough report to the Supervisory Board on Audit Committee meetings. Apart from the audit of the annual financial statements and the latest business developments, the focus of the Supervisory Board meetings was on the strategic considerations of the group and its businesses. The Supervisory Board also discussed geopolitical developments. Other topics addressed by the Supervisory Board included the Climate Protection Plan, the acquisition of SpringWorks, the Merck Group's cyber risk landscape, and the topic of artificial intelligence as part of a comprehensive training program. In doing so, the Supervisory Board fulfilled its duties incumbent upon it under the law, the articles of association, the rules of procedure. Ladies and gentlemen, that is all from my side for now. I now turn the floor over to Ms. Belen Garijo, Chair of the Executive Board. She's going to report to you on the past fiscal year. Belen, may I please ask you for your report? Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is a true privilege for me to welcome you to the Merck Annual General Meeting 2026. As you can imagine, today is a very, very special moment for me because it will be the last time I address you as the CEO of Merck. That thought has led me to reflect deeply on my time at this remarkable company. When I stepped into this role in May 2022, the world was in total turmoil. A global pandemic has disrupted supply chains, upended entire industries and private lives, our teams were challenged with isolation and uncertainty. It was a historic period of volatility, that was the starting point for my CEO tenure. That's why I call myself a COVID CEO. While I was steering Merck out of the pandemic, I asked myself, "What kind of Merck do we want to see in five years from now?" For sure, not a company that survived a crisis, but one that could emerge stronger, more innovative, and more united. Today, I am proud to share that journey with you. A journey of transformation, a journey of growth, a journey of unity. Above all, this is the story of the way we built the foundation for Merck's next chapter. When the pandemic hit, one of the first battles that we have to deal with has to do with logistics and geographical diversification, the way the countries reacted. We saw in real time how fragile global interdependencies had become. Our supply chains were stretched to the breaking point. We made a truly defining choice to didn't just patch the holes, but we fundamentally redesigned our footprint. We began a massive shift towards regionalization, investing in region for region manufacturing and R&D. Since then, we have invested over EUR 7 billion in more than 30 new and expanded sites worldwide. Today, as we continue to navigate a world of rupture, ongoing geopolitical tensions, and trade complexities, that decision that we made five years ago has become a significant competitive advantage for Merck. Together with our multi-industry business model and our talented teams across the globe, we have built a Merck that can withstand a fractured world. Resilience was only about how we operate. To truly hand over a stronger Merck, we had to be equally bold with what we did. We know that our long-term success would be defined by high growth, high impact markets, and it would certainly be defined by our ability to shape the next generation of breakthroughs. To deliver on this ambition, we require a rigorous capital allocation, focusing on investment on where the next decade of science is being written. We looked at our businesses and see attractive long-term growth opportunities in three pillars. Bioprocessing, rare diseases, and artificial intelligence. Bioprocessing is transforming the path from drug discovery to the patient's bedside. It can shorten development cycles and accelerate the launch of increasingly complex medicines. The acquisition of the chromatography business of JSR Life Sciences is helping us further strengthen our commitment to bioprocessing. Chromatography is a key method to clean and separate molecules when we are producing medicines. In healthcare, we are moving from playing big to playing safer. If you remember, a few years ago, we have experienced 2 phase III pipeline setbacks. Yes, we understand that setbacks are part of the inherent nature of the pharma business. For us, this served as a clear signal. If we want to grow healthcare in a meaningful way and deliver real impact for patients as a mid-sized player, we must continuously sharpen our focus. That's why we deliberately directed our efforts toward rare diseases, an area where patients urgently await for new options. The acquisition of SpringWorks Therapeutics is a perfect fit for our strategic pivot. The U.S.-based biopharmaceutical company is giving us immediate momentum, bringing 2 approved rare disease therapies into our portfolio. pimicotinib is another drug for which we acquired the commercialization rights from our Chinese partners, Abbisko Therapeutics, for the treatment of Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumor or TGCT. With it, we now have three approved medicines in rare diseases, this clearly positions us to build a focused, high-impact rare disease pipeline that will drive sustainable growth in healthcare. Of course, last but not least, artificial intelligence is reshaping daily life and global industries. To fully capture AI-driven demand and the need for high-end chips and advanced packaging, we sharpened our electronics focus on semiconductors. We divested Surface Solutions and acquired Unity-SC. Unity-SC is a company providing metrology and inspection instrumentation for the semiconductor industry. This acquisition positioned us to serve the emerging need for advanced chips in high-value growth areas. Since 2021, we completed over EUR 4 billion in acquisitions and divestments under a string of pearls approach. We also enter multiple collaborations across growth and innovation fields. Today, we are positioned strongly with a very clear focus on these 3 growth drivers that I already mentioned, Process Solutions in Life Science, rare diseases in Healthcare, and Semiconductor Solutions in Electronics. Together, these businesses will generate up to 80% of our future growth in the midterm. To ensure we are ready for the opportunities ahead, we are also evolving our structures across business sectors and across global functions. Guided by a customer and patient-first mindset, we are simplifying processes, interfaces, so that we can move faster in a highly dynamic world and make decisions with greater clarity. At the same time, we are reinforcing our financial disciplines, enabling us to invest boldly in the innovations and the capabilities that will shape the future. By doing so, we are positioning Merck for the next phase of growth. Over the past few years, we have shown that Merck truly stands for resilience, and most importantly, the courage and the commitment to keep investing in future growth. The pandemic gave us and our life science business an extraordinary boost, we also felt its aftermath, what I called the COVID cliff in 2023. Thanks to the unwavering commitment and discipline of Team Merck, we navigated this turning point and returned to growth in 2024. That was no easy feat as we operate and operated in a tough and highly volatile environment. As noted, our response to this volatility is our five-year transformation journey. Our efforts are clearly visible in our financial results. From 2020 to 2025, our net sales increased by 20%, and our EBITDA pre increased by 17%. We generated 30% more operating cash flow in that period. Our EPS earning per share grew by 31%, with dividends per share increasing by 57%. At the same time, we made remarkable progress toward climate neutrality, cutting the net greenhouse gas emission and emissions from purchased energy by 60% since 2020. We have achieved 64% purchased renewable electricity, advancing toward our 80% objective by 2030. None of this would have been possible without the trust of our shareholders, the dedication of our employees, and the support of our partners and customers. For this, I am deeply thankful to all of you. Now, let's take a closer look at how this transformation has translated into our performance in 2025. Our net sales in 2025 reached EUR 20.1 billion, representing organic growth of around 3.1%. EBITDA pre was EUR 6.1 billion, corresponding to a margin of almost 29% of net sales. This came despite significant foreign exchange headwinds and earnings dilution from strategic portfolio moves. All business sectors contributed to this in complementary ways. Let's start by Life Science. The market in Life Science remains highly attractive despite the short-term headwinds that we have seen. Over the long term, demographic trends such as aging global population and expanding access to healthcare will drive sustained demand. As customer expectations evolve, we are counting on new technologies, including automation and robotics, to strengthen our position and to position better and capture future growth. In Life Science, we strengthen our position as a leading provider for customer in research, diagnostics, pharma, industrial, and testing, and beyond, helping ensure that therapies and vaccines meet patients sooner. The sector delivered organic sales growth of 4%, with Process Solutions achieving double-digit organic sales growth. In addition to the acquisition of chromatography business of JSR Life Sciences, we opened our EUR 150 million facility in Blarney in Ireland to increase our manufacturing capacity for critical filtration devices used in life-changing therapies. Furthermore, we initiated a new customer-centric operating model, which was effective as of January 2026, organized around Process Solutions, Discovery Solutions, and Advanced Solutions, basically to put more customer centrization in the organization. In Healthcare, we deliver organic growth of 3.7%, and that was driven by a strong performance across all major franchises. We maximized the profitability of established medicines, including Mavenclad and Erbitux, while our cardiometabolic and endocrinology, together with fertility franchises, provided a stable cash generative foundation. Excluding global health programs, our commercial portfolio of medicines reached over 100 million patients worldwide in 2025, which makes us very proud. I have mentioned the strategic importance of SpringWorks Therapeutics in our portfolio. Their 2 medicines for rare diseases, Ogsiveo and Mavenclad, are performing as expected. Combined with pimicotinib's recent regulatory process and approval in China and in the U.S., rare diseases is 1 of the key growth drivers for us. Electronics delivered a resilient performance with only a slight decline of 0.6% in sales. With a strong momentum in semiconductor materials, which grew organically by 8.2%, continued to energize the electronics business sector, supported by rising structural demand for AI. To strengthen our position in this strategic growth area, we have invested strongly across our global footprint in recent years, and most recently, we have inaugurated our EUR 500 million semiconductor solutions mega site in Taiwan. As I mentioned, supported by the Unity-SC acquisition, the business unit Optronics delivered a stable performance. Based on this solid performance in 2025, we propose a stable dividends of EUR 2.2 per share at today's annual general meeting. This marks the 15 year in a row with an increasing or a stable dividend. We want to thank you, our shareholders, for your continued support. We view growth not only through the financial lens. We firmly believe that if we want our company to grow, our people have to grow. That is why we have deliberately invested in building a skill-powered organization for the growth of our own people and in turn, the growth of our company. This includes concrete initiatives such as My Growth, which is an artificial intelligence-powered platform that is giving our employees real-time access to open jobs, mentorship, and tailored development based on critical skills. Since we launched in 2024, it has enabled over 1,000 internal hires. The second initiative is the Global Development Weeks, an enterprise-wide learning program with global and local offering, designed and facilitated by our own talented employees. Last year, we have offered over 650 learning session in 15 languages. Last but not least, the Leadership Growth Forum, which is a dedicated program that is equipping our leaders with the capabilities that they need to guide their teams through uncertainty and transformation. According to our surveys, 95% of participants would recommend this program to a colleague. This investment are already paying off. Our people have delivered exceptional performance, and the proof points you heard earlier from our transformation and growth journey, speak by themselves. Here my clear message to our employees, thank you for your dedication. You are the ones who bring our ambition to life. There is nothing small in what you do. Our transformation and growth did not happen in silos. We achieve because we stood together and focus our energy in collaboration and in moving the teams in an aligned direction. Four years ago, we set out to capture the spirit of this company, a spirit that balances a rich history with a restless ambition for the future. Our people gave us the answer in four words that encapsulate this spirit: Sparking discovery, elevating humanity. Our vision is to spark the discoveries that others may not see, so that we can elevate the lives of people we may never meet. Today, this vision unites our global workforce, we know that vision alone isn't enough. True unity demands a specific mindset and a robust structure, we have built that foundation over the past few years. Take our Organ-on-a-Chip project. Our electronic teams and our life science team join forces to create tiny high-tech devices that act just like human organs. Instead of testing drug candidates in animals, we can test new medicines on these tiny mini organs made with real human cells. By combining the knowledge of semiconductors materials with our expertise in human biology, we can find drug candidates eventually faster and more safely. It's a win for science, a win for animal welfare, and most importantly, a win for patients. This is the power of unity in action. We have built the momentum. Now we are ready to accelerate it into our next chapter. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Merck that we have shaped over the past five years. A company with a clear strategy for future growth, a solid pipeline, and greater resilience and unity than ever before. It has been my privilege to serve as Merck's CEO during this period. As Merck continues to evolve, so does our executive board team. At our last annual general meeting, I introduced Danny Bar-Zohar, Jean-Charles Wirth, and Khadija Ben Hammada to you. Today, I'm proud to welcome a new member to the Executive Board, Benjamin Hein. I have seen Ben lead with strategic vision and a deep commitment to our customers and our teams over many years. From Electronics to Life Science, he has consistently delivered impact across our organization. With a strong international experience, Ben will join the Executive Board as CEO of Electronics as of May first. He will succeed Kai Beckmann, currently our Deputy Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Electronics. As you all know, Kai will become Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck as of May first. Over the past months, we have worked side by side not only to master the transition, but to make sure it starts on the strongest possible foundation. We have known and trusted each other for many, many years. This close collaboration has only been deepened further during the transition. Kai knows every corner of this great company. I have no doubt that under his leadership, Merck will continue to build on the foundation we have laid and seize the opportunities ahead. Kai, please join me on the stage to share a few words with all of us. Thank you kind words. This is my 16th AGM for Merck, but it feels different than the other times. Things are different today. Dear shareholders, thank you very much for the opportunity to already now say a few words to you. In the short of the time available, I would like to give you an impression of who I am and how I view Merck and my new role. First, allow me to address our outgoing CEO. Belén, it has been a pleasure working with you over the many years. You have left a lasting mark on Merck through your dedication, your passion, your energy, and you have guided us reliably through several crises, and I wish you all the very best for your future plans. I'm pretty sure that we will stay in close contact. All the best to you, Belén. Ladies and gentlemen, I have dedicated my, almost my entire professional life to Merck, not because I lacked options, but because nowhere else were the opportunities for shaping the future greater, because nowhere else was the corporate culture more impressive, and because Merck has always given me the feeling of being open to new ideas. Over the years, this has allowed me to take on a variety of roles, both at home and abroad, with ever-increasing responsibility. Merck's development into a world-leading science and technology company has become a defining part of my own life's journey. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the great trust that Merck and above all, the Merck family has placed in me. That is not something to be taken for granted. I joined the company in 1989, 6 years before the IPO, and it was a completely different time. All the more reason to take a brief look back. 1989 was the year the Berlin Wall came down, and technologically speaking, it marked the start of the widespread adoption of the internet. Both signaled the dawn of a completely new era. I joined Merck back then as a young computer scientist, and the rest is history. Almost because if we look at the present, today is once again a time of major social change in the world. On the one hand, we are experiencing geopolitical tensions. On the other hand, new technologies such as, especially of course, artificial intelligence, are changing the way we communicate with one another, and indeed, the way we live. I'm telling you all this to show you that change is a constant in my life. That is precisely why my time at Merck has always been so exciting, and in the best sense of the world, because challenging for me, because it was also about not just keeping up with the times, but even more so staying ahead of them. We've managed to do that very well, and our company now stands on a solid foundation because of it. This brings with it the responsibility to continue to stay ahead of the curve, to remain at the forefront of technological progress. My previous role as the head of the Electronics division was closely intertwined with the enormous technological potential in the semiconductor sector, which just a few years ago was considered virtually impossible, was unimaginable. We have made significant contributions to this. This innovative drive is embedded in all our activities and businesses, or to put it another way, our portfolio is perfect, perfectly in tune with the times. I see a key task of my tenure as fully exploiting the enormous potential of this combined portfolio for the benefit of patients, our customers, our employees, and of course, for your benefit, all the esteemed shareholders here. I do this with the necessary respect and in the knowledge that I have a great team by my side. I mean my colleagues on the Executive Board, Danny Bar-Zohar, Khadija Ben Hammada, Helene von Roeder, Jean-Charles Wirth, and also Benjamin Hein in a couple of days. I mean Merck's global team as well, 62,461 highly committed and qualified colleagues in 65 countries. Ladies and gentlemen, what we do is not about us, but about the bigger picture. We are part of a corporate history that spans centuries. Many before us have paved the way. Now it is up to us to write the next chapter in Merck's history, and I can hardly imagine anything more meaningful. Rest assured that I will lead this company responsibly and with a clear vision for the future in your best interest. Thank you very much for your trust and your support. Thank you. Thank you very much. Congratulations, Kai. Now it is my pleasure and my honor to hand the leadership of the company to you symbolically. Yes. -as you become the new CEO of Merck. Thank you. We are almost at the end of the introduction. Before I go to the closing, ladies and gentlemen, I wanted to clarify a small point because when I spoke about pimicotinib, before I said it's approved in China, and it's true, and I meant to say soon in the U.S. because it will be approved by the end of the year. Not approved yet, that is clear. Good. Now for closing. Let me tell you that, as I stand here today, I look back with gratitude and strong pride. Together, we have sharpened our strategy, strengthened our pipeline, and deepened the collaboration across our businesses. We laid the foundation for the next phase of Merck's journey, solid, ambitious, and built to last. This is the Merck that I am extremely proud to hand over to Kai and the teams, and now this foundation becomes the platform for what comes next. Thank you to all of you for your trust, for your partnership, for your unwavering commitment to this company. The future of Merck is full of possibilities. Thank you very much. Thank you, Belén, also on behalf of the meeting for your comprehensive and insightful report on the past fiscal year. I would like to express also my thanks to you, Mr. Beckmann. I would like to express my thanks and recognition to the entire Executive Board for the business achievements in fiscal 2025. My special recognition, of course, also applies in particular to the employees of our company, without whom Merck would have never been so successful. They are the basis for the success of Merck. We will also bid farewell our CEO, Belén Garijo. She has for so many years led our company with utmost commitment. Over the last 15 years, she has put her mark on the last 15 years, five of which as the Chair of the Executive Board in very volatile times. As of the 35th of April, she will hand over to Kai Beckmann, as we've just seen with handing over of the symbolic M. Belén, in very difficult times, you led us with consistency. I would like to thank you for that on behalf of the Supervisory Board and the meeting as a whole. With your leadership, you coined the development of Merck into a world-leading science and technology company, and you built a solid basis for the further success of our company. Not only handing over the keys, but you also paved the way for further success. I personally also enjoyed our exchange and our collaboration, and I wish you all the best for the future, Belén. At the same time, as of the first of May, we are looking forward to welcome Kai Beckmann as the new Chair of the Executive Board. Kai Beckmann has extensive experience and expertise and a very clear strategic vision. These are the best preconditions for bringing Merck into the next successful growth. Mr. Beckmann, we are looking forward to collaborate with you and would like to welcome you to your new role as CEO. For all the tasks ahead of you, they will not be easy in this very fast-moving times. Yeah, world is not better, but it becomes different, and I think we are well-positioned to answer that. For your tasks ahead, all the best, and I personally, I would like to wish you all the best. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies, gentlemen, you can review the speech by Ms. Belén Garijo online on the website. It has been published on this April 16th, 2026. A recording of the speech will also be available online after the AGM. Please note that the recordings of the sound and photographs are not allowed anymore here in the auditorium.