Tempus expands multi-year Merck collaboration giving Merck access to de-identified multimodal data and Lens platform
Tempus expanded a multi-year Merck deal that licenses access to its de-identified multimodal oncology data through the Lens platform — a Mode II wrap where Merck operates inside Tempus' perimeter rather than taking data out.
What happened
- Announced expansion of a multi-year collaboration between Tempus AI (NASDAQ: TEM) and Merck (NYSE: MRK)
- Scope: Merck gains access to Tempus' de-identified multimodal dataset via the Lens platform (agentic AI on 8.5M+ de-identified oncology records) plus Workspaces.
- No financial terms disclosed.
- Tempus FY2025 revenue $1.27B; Data & Applications Q4'25 revenue $100.4M with Insights up ~70% YoY ex-AstraZeneca warrant.
- Merck FY2025 revenue $65.01B; Keytruda alone generated $29.5B in 2024 (~46% of revenue), making oncology biomarker data unusually load-bearing for this buyer.
- Lens is used by 19 of the top 20 biopharma companies — Tempus has a benchmark it can price to.
Who is involved
US precision-medicine company; owns Lens (agentic AI platform on 8.5M+ de-identified oncology records) plus the Workspaces analytical environment used by biopharma for biomarker discovery and trial design.
FY2025 revenue $1.27B; Data & Applications Q4'25 revenue $100.4M with Insights (data licensing) up ~70% YoY ex-AstraZeneca warrant; NASDAQ: TEM
US pharma major (Merck & Co., NYSE: MRK; MSD outside US/Canada); relevance here is as the oncology buyer — Keytruda alone drove $29.5B in 2024, so precision-medicine biomarker work directly feeds its dominant PD-1 franchise.
FY2025 revenue $65.01B; NYSE: MRK
The reading
Enrichment is Tempus-side: Merck uses the Lens Platform with Workspaces and Tempus' de-identified multimodal dataset to run its own precision-medicine biomarker work. The release does not describe Tempus running bespoke analytical services for Merck the way the Gilead expansion does, so the balance is closer to Merck-as-operator inside a Tempus-built environment.
The rake is owned by Tempus: the data, the AI tooling, and the platform all sit inside Tempus' perimeter, and Merck licenses access. No financial terms were disclosed by either party, so quantum is not visible.
For Merck specifically, biomarker-defined cohorts in oncology (and adjacent therapeutic areas) directly feed Keytruda expansion and its post-2028 pipeline; 46% of 2024 revenue coming from Keytruda makes real-world multimodal oncology data unusually load-bearing for this buyer.
What crossed: de-identified multimodal data access and a licensed analytical environment (Lens + Workspaces). What did not: the raw patient records — Merck operates on the data inside Tempus' platform rather than taking a copy out.
Not determinable — undisclosed terms; the fact that Lens is used by 19 of the top 20 biopharma suggests Tempus can price to a benchmark, but there is no public signal of whether this specific expansion is at, above or below it.
Why it matters
Two pharma majors, two multi-year agreements, and no financial terms disclosed in either. That opacity is not incidental — it is the mechanism. As long as nobody can cite what oncology real-world data costs, Tempus negotiates every deal without a public comparable sitting on the other side of the table.
Sources
- businesswire.com — primary
- businesswire.com — party background
- stockanalysis.com — party background
- stockanalysis.com — party background
- google.com — party background