Pharma Launches, Go-to-Market, Licensing and Board Advice

Therapeutic areas: oncology, rare tumours and rare diseases, biosimilars, and specialty pharma.

Practice 01

Deals and cross-border growth

A deal gets plenty of attention up to signature. The execution that follows rarely gets the attention it needs, and that is where the value of the deal is realised or lost. We help you find the counterparty, structure and negotiate the terms, and then stay on the execution so the business gets what the deal was meant to deliver. We have done this as licensee and licensor, buyer and partner, with counterparties in China, Japan, Korea, India, Brazil, the United States, Canada and Europe: more than 50 deals between 2008 and 2026.

What this covers: licensing in and out, M&A and due diligence, partner search, and cross-border partnering in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, as well as Europe and the United States.

Record of the founder · Merck KGaA · 2023 to 2025

A China licence taken to launch

In 2023 Abbisko's pimicotinib was still in Phase III for tenosynovial giant cell tumour, so the data that would justify paying for worldwide rights did not exist yet. Yariv led a deal built for that uncertainty: an exclusive licence for China, with an option on the rest of the world that could be exercised once the Phase III read out. It read out positive, and in March 2025 he led the commercial case to exercise the option for $85M. The drug was approved in China in December 2025 and launched there in the first quarter of 2026, first in its class. The FDA accepted the US filing in January 2026.

Record of the founder · Merck KGaA · 2025

A $3.4B acquisition, from first idea to first results

Yariv identified SpringWorks Therapeutics as a target, built the commercial case and the strategic rationale, and co-led the commercial due diligence and the Board engagement. The acquisition closed on 1 July 2025 at an enterprise value of $3.4B, Merck KGaA's first major healthcare acquisition since 2007. The acquired rare tumour portfolio delivered €188M in its first six months.

Record of the founder · Merck Serono · 2012 to 2015

A biosimilars business built through four partners

Between 2012 and 2015 Merck Serono built its biosimilars activity through a series of external agreements, each led by Yariv. In June 2012 it formed a global partnership with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories of Hyderabad to co-develop, manufacture and commercialise a portfolio of oncology biosimilars, mainly monoclonal antibodies. Dr. Reddy's led early development through Phase I, and Merck Serono took manufacturing and later-stage development. In June 2013 Merck Serono signed a production-technology co-development agreement with ISU Abxis in Korea. In November 2013 a technology-transfer framework with Bionovis and Brazilian public laboratories was reported, covering six biologics. Between 2013 and 2014 a technology-transfer and overseas-rights relationship followed with Hanwha Chemical for HD203, an etanercept biosimilar, separate from Hanwha's earlier, terminated agreement with MSD.

What we did not know

Whether a competitive biosimilars business could be built largely through external partners, rather than owning every asset and capability, and still deliver the quality, speed and economics a multi-asset portfolio needs.

How we managed it

The portfolio was spread across several partners and assets, with deep diligence, strong governance and active decisions to increase, reduce or stop investment as the evidence changed.

Record of the founder · Merck KGaA · 2016 to 2020

Diagnostics and combination studies around ERBITUX

Between 2016 and 2020 Merck KGaA signed a series of agreements, led by Yariv, around ERBITUX (cetuximab), its marketed colorectal and head and neck cancer medicine. In January 2016 it agreed with Biocartis to develop and commercialise an Idylla liquid-biopsy test covering KRAS, NRAS and BRAF. In June 2016 it joined the BEACON CRC Phase III study with Array BioPharma and Pierre Fabre, supplying cetuximab for trial sites outside the United States and Canada. In July 2016 a collaboration with Amoy Diagnostics brought liquid-biopsy RAS testing to China. In June 2020 Merck KGaA signed a clinical collaboration and supply agreement with Junshi Biosciences to evaluate toripalimab plus cetuximab in head and neck cancer. He also sponsored and governed the 2019 KingMed Diagnostics agreement on RAS/BRAF testing in China.

What we did not know

Whether investing around a mature medicine, in better testing and new combinations, would change clinical practice and create growth, or produce interesting science without changing the business.

How we managed it

Several capital-light bets instead of one large one, across different diagnostics partners and external combination collaborations, with more put behind whatever the clinical and commercial evidence supported.

Record of the founder · Merck Serono · 2010 to 2011

A pioneering operating model with CROs

Until 2010 Merck Serono outsourced clinical development study by study, like most of the industry. Every change to a study meant a change order, and every change order reopened cost and timelines. Yariv designed and implemented a different model, one of the first of its kind in the industry. Four major CROs, ICON and Quintiles among them, took on full development programmes instead of single studies and shared the operational risk with Merck Serono. The clear purpose was to eliminate change orders, and to make the CROs partners in delivering a programme rather than suppliers of individual studies. The model delivered fewer change orders, lower cost and faster timelines. In February 2011 Yariv, then in Global Alliance Management, Business Development, presented it at an industry conference as a case study in operational risk sharing.

What we did not know

Whether handing four CROs full programmes and a share of the operational risk would make development faster and more predictable, or simply move risk outside Merck Serono while leaving Merck Serono accountable for the result.

How we managed it

Partnerships instead of transactions: risk sharing, clear performance measures, and governance strong enough to give the CROs more responsibility without giving up control.

Practice 02

Scaling and turnaround

Whether a business is being built from zero or has stopped growing, it needs a clear strategy for how it will grow and a strong team to deliver it. We help you set that strategy and build that team, and we have done both ourselves: as the first employee of a division later divested for €656M, and with a brand the market had written off, which became a blockbuster eight years after losing exclusivity.

What this covers: moving from generics into specialty pharma, launches and commercial excellence, market access, pricing and reimbursement, lifecycle management of mature brands, and turnarounds.

Record of the founder · Merck KGaA · 2017 to 2025

Into China's reimbursement list in the window nobody planned for

ERBITUX failed China's 2017 national reimbursement negotiation, and the working assumption was a wait of at least two years for the next list. In 2018 the newly created National Healthcare Security Administration opened a one-off round for cancer drugs, and Yariv took direct ownership of the resubmission, rebuilding the plan with the China organisation around a price the market had not seen for the product. ERBITUX was listed in October 2018 at a 69% discount. Over the seven years that followed, until biosimilars arrived in 2025, China sales grew five-fold.

Record of the founder · Merck KGaA · 2015 to 2025

A declining brand turned into the company's best seller

By 2015 the market had written ERBITUX off, with analysts forecasting continued decline. Sales bottomed at €816M in 2018. Yariv rebuilt the brand through lifecycle strategy, new indications and access expansion, and took the commercial decision to concentrate on the patient segment where the drug works best, accepting a smaller addressable population for a larger share of it. ERBITUX became a blockbuster in 2022, eight years after losing exclusivity in Europe, and reached €1,176M in 2025 as Merck KGaA's best-selling healthcare product.

Record of the founder · Merck Serono · 2011 to 2015

From the first hire to a €656M exit

Merck KGaA decided to enter biosimilars in 2011, and Yariv, then in business development, was the first person recruited to build the business from within. He was one of a small founding team, responsible for business development and partnering, strategy and portfolio. He co-led the presentation of the investment case to the Group Executive Board, which approved it in early 2012. The business was built largely through partners: Dr. Reddy's Laboratories in India, Hanwha Chemical and ISU Abxis in Korea, Bionovis in Brazil, and other undisclosed collaborations. He sourced, negotiated and signed these agreements, then co-chaired their steering committees for four years. The division was later divested to Fresenius Kabi for €656M.

Record of the founder · Merck KGaA · 2021 to 2023

Launching second, and winning

TEPMETKO reached the US nine months behind the first MET inhibitor, into hospitals that COVID had closed to sales teams. Yariv rebuilt the go-to-market with the US team. US market share grew three and a half times in two years and TEPMETKO became the company's fastest-growing brand. In Europe, a lean launch model beat the business case and made TEPMETKO the European leader in its indication.

Practice 03

Board and CEO advisory

We have held the P&L, built a business from its first employee, initiated and co-led a $3.4B acquisition, and negotiated licences from both sides of the table. We take board seats, work with CEOs and their executive teams as a sounding board, and step in as fractional CEO, COO or CBO for a defined period. We also help founders with a real asset prepare for the questions investors will ask.

What this covers: growth strategy, business model and go-to-market choices, portfolio and investment cases, board seats, and fractional CEO, COO or CBO roles.

Record of the founder · Merck Serono · 2011 to 2012

Winning the decision before there was anything to run

In 2011 Merck KGaA had to decide whether to enter biosimilars. Yariv was one of the small team that built the investment case, responsible for the partnering strategy and the portfolio it rested on, and co-led its presentation to the Group Executive Board, which approved it in early 2012. The next four years went into turning an approved case into a business, largely through partnerships in India, Korea and Brazil, with Yariv co-chairing their steering committees. The division was later divested to Fresenius Kabi for €656M.

Record of the founder · Merck KGaA · 2023

Buying the rights back

BAVENCIO was discovered at Merck KGaA and co-developed and co-commercialised with Pfizer from 2014, under an alliance in which Pfizer had paid $850M upfront and the two companies split costs and profits equally. By 2023 the question was whether the alliance still made sense for the drug. Yariv made the business case for buying the rights back, and co-chaired alliance governance. The alliance was terminated with effect from 30 June 2023: Merck KGaA regained exclusive worldwide rights and control of all future development, with Pfizer's profit share replaced by a 15% royalty on net sales.

Record of the founder · Merck KGaA · 2015 to 2019

The medicine was only half the problem

ERBITUX works only in patients whose tumours carry no RAS mutation, so every eligible patient first needs a test. In many markets that test was slow, tissue-dependent or simply unavailable. Yariv led the global strategy to widen testing rather than wait for health systems to catch up: liquid-biopsy RAS testing, the Biocartis Idylla collaboration for rapid automated RAS and BRAF results, and the AmoyDx collaboration for China. Building on the existing Sysmex OncoBEAM platform, and working with the local team in China on a model with KingMed Diagnostics, testing reached hospitals that could not build their own molecular labs. The result was not one global diagnostic but a portfolio matched to each market's laboratories and patient pathways. It was one part of the wider ERBITUX turnaround.

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