Sunil A. Patel
Senior vice president, head of corporate development and business development & licensing
"We're strongly committed to partnership success and recognize that the greatest achievements are not reached alone. They're the result of teamwork."Years at Merck Research Laboratories
25
Sunil Patel is senior vice president, head of corporate development and business development & licensing (BD&L) at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL). He leads all corporate development activities including M&A, commercial transactions, financial evaluation & analysis, competitive intelligence, and alliance management & integration. Patel is also responsible for the search, evaluation and transactions teams and the MRL ventures fund team.
Patel began his career with Merck in 1998 and has more than 25 years of experience across a range of positions in business development, licensing and commercial marketing. Prior to his current role, he served as senior vice president and head of corporate development, directing numerous acquisitions, large-scale commercial-stage deals and divestitures including the sale of Merck consumer care and the successful spinoff of Organon. Under his leadership, the BD&L team has executed collaborations that have shaped the company’s pipeline and product portfolio across oncology, cardiovascular and more.
Patel holds a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from Purdue University and earned his M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University.
