Halozyme files lawsuit against Merck over SC Keytruda

25 April 2025

California-based biotech Halozyme Therapeutics (Nasdaq: HALO) yesterday revealed it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) in the US District Court in New Jersey.

Halozyme believes the subcutaneous formulation of Merck's cancer medicine, Keytruda (pembrolizumab) infringes multiple patents that Halozyme filed beginning in 2011 to protect its ground-breaking MDASE subcutaneous delivery technology. Subcutaneous (SC) Keytruda has completed Phase III clinical testing and Merck has publicly commented on its intention to launch the SC product in 2025. Merck has used Halozyme's technology to develop SC Keytruda without Halozyme's permission, the biotech maintains.

For its part, Merck has argued it is using the ALT-B4 form of hyaluronidase developed independently by its partner Alteogen - not technology invented by Halozyme.

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