NEW YORK/LAS VEGAS: Drug and vaccine maker Merck & Co. Inc. said it suffered a worldwide disruption of its operations when it was the victim of an international cyber attack in June, halting production of its drugs, which will hurt its profits for the rest of the year.
The company said it does not yet understand the full magnitude of the impact as it is in the process of restoring manufacturing operations. It disclosed the attack last month but did not disclose the manufacturing shutdown at the time.
Merck said it was confident that it will be able to maintain a continuous supply of its top-selling and life-saving drugs, including cancer drug Keytruda, diabetes drug Januvia and hepatitis C drug Zepatier. But it warned of temporary delays in delivering some other products, which it did not identify.
“Full recovery from the cyber-attack will take some time, but we are making steady progress,” Chief Executive Ken Frazier said on a conference call as the company reported quarterly results.
Merck is the latest in a string of corporations to disclose that operations were significantly disrupted by the NotPetya attack, which devastated businesses and government agencies in Ukraine a month ago and has gradually spread around the globe. Security sources said they expect more to come forward in the coming weeks.
Package delivery company FedEx Corp., shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk, Cadbury chocolate parent Mondelez International Inc. and British consumer goods maker Reckitt Benckiser have also said their operations were disrupted by the attack.
At least four other major US and European firms have also experienced massive outages due to NotPetya, but have held off on going public as they seek to restore systems, said a person familiar with those efforts. The source declined to identify the victims, saying the firms were not ready to go public.
NotPetya is a destructive virus capable of spreading quickly across computer networks, crippling computers by encrypting hard drives so that machines cannot run.
The attacks have caused massive disruptions to industrial networks that rely on computers because businesses must individually replace damaged drives, a labor-intensive process.
The impact on Merck was particularly troubling because it affected the firm's ability to produce medicines, said Joshua Corman, director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council.
“This is serious. It affects human lives,” Corman said. “Imagine if the supply of something like H5N1 influenza vaccine was affected when we needed them.”
Ukraine officials have blamed Russia for the attack, claims which Moscow has vehemently denied.
Cyber security experts have said they believe the virus was intended to cripple Ukraine, but that it spread to global corporations whose networks were connected to Ukraine.
Merck’s quarterly profit blew past analysts’ estimates as demand surged for top-selling cancer drug Keytruda and the company reined in expenses.
Net income rose to $1.95 billion, or 71 cents per share, in the second quarter, from $1.21 billion, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.
Cyber attack will hurt profits: Merck
Cyber attack will hurt profits: Merck
Kuwait to boost Islamic finance with sukuk regulation
- The move supports sustainable financing and is part of Kuwait’s efforts to diversify its oil-dependent economy
RIYADH: Kuwait is planning to introduce legislation to regulate the issuance of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, both domestically and internationally, as part of efforts to support more sustainable financing for the oil-rich Gulf nation, Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Al-Sabah highlighted that Kuwait is exploring a variety of debt instruments to diversify its economy. The country has been implementing fiscal reforms aimed at stimulating growth and controlling its budget deficit amid persistently low oil prices. Hydrocarbons continue to dominate Kuwait’s revenue stream, accounting for nearly 90 percent of government income in 2024.
The Gulf Cooperation Council’s debt capital market is projected to exceed $1.25 trillion by 2026, driven by project funding and government initiatives, representing a 13.6 percent expansion, according to Fitch Ratings.
The region is expected to remain one of the largest sources of US dollar-denominated debt and sukuk issuance among emerging markets. Fitch also noted that cross-sector economic diversification, refinancing needs, and deficit funding are key factors behind this growth.
“We are about to approve the first legislation regulating issuance of government sukuk locally and internationally, in accordance with Islamic laws,” Al-Sabah said.
“This enables us to deal with financial challenges flexibly and responsibly, and to plan for medium and long-term finances.”
Kuwait returned to global debt markets last year with strong results, raising $11.25 billion through a three-part bond sale — the country’s first US dollar issuance since 2017 — drawing substantial investor demand. In March, a new public debt law raised the borrowing ceiling to 30 billion dinars ($98 billion) from 10 billion dinars, enabling longer-term borrowing.
The Gulf’s debt capital markets, which totaled $1.1 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2025, have evolved from primarily sovereign funding tools into increasingly sophisticated instruments serving governments, banks, and corporates alike. As diversification efforts accelerate and refinancing cycles intensify, regional issuers have become regular participants in global debt markets, reinforcing the GCC’s role in emerging-market capital flows.
In 2025, GCC countries accounted for 35 percent of all emerging-market US dollar debt issuance, excluding China, with growth in US dollar sukuk issuance notably outpacing conventional bonds. The region’s total outstanding debt capital markets grew more than 14 percent year on year, reaching $1.1 trillion.
