Assurance report

Limited assurance report of the Independent Practitioner regarding the sustainability report of Merck Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien for the financial year from January 1 to December 31, 2023

To Merck Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien, Darmstadt/Germany

Our Engagement

We have performed a limited assurance engagement on the sustainability report of Merck Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien, Darmstadt/Germany, (hereafter referred to as “the Company” or “Merck”), for the financial year from January 1 to December 31, 2023 (hereafter referred to as “sustainability report”).

Our assurance engagement neither covered the chapter “SASB index”, nor any of the disclosures related to prior periods nor references to external sources of documentation and websites, including their contents. Nor did our engagement cover the remuneration report referred to in the sustainability report.

Responsibilities of the Executive Directors

The executive directors of the Company are responsible for the preparation of the sustainability report in accordance with the principles stated in the Sustainability Reporting Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (hereafter referred to as “GRI Principles”) and with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (hereafter referred to as “TCFD”) (altogether referred to as “relevant criteria”).

These responsibilities of the executive directors include the selection and application of appropriate methods for sustainability reporting and the use of assumptions and estimates for individual sustainability disclosures which are reasonable under the given circumstances. In addition, the executive directors are responsible for such internal control as they have determined necessary to enable the preparation of a sustainability report that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud (i.e., fraudulent sustainability reporting) or error.

The preciseness and completeness of environmental data in the sustainability report is subject to inherent existing restrictions resulting from the way how the data was collected and calculated and from assumptions made.

Independence and Quality Assurance of the Independent Practitioner

We have complied with the German professional requirements on independence as well as other professional conduct requirements.

Our firm applies the national statutory rules and professional pronouncements – particularly of the “Professional Charter for German Public Auditors and German Sworn Auditors” (BS WP/vBP) and of the Quality Management Standards issued by the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany (IDW) – and accordingly maintains a comprehensive quality management system that includes documented policies and procedures with regard to compliance with professional rules of conduct, professional standards, as well as relevant statutory and other legal requirements.

Responsibilities of the Independent Practitioner

Our responsibility is to express a conclusion on the sustainability report based on our work performed within our limited assurance engagement.

We conducted our work in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): “Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information”, issued by the IAASB. This Standard requires that we plan and perform the assurance engagement so that we can conclude with limited assurance whether matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the sustainability report of the Company, other than the chapter “SASB index”, any disclosures related to prior periods and references to external sources of documentation and websites, including their contents, as well as the aforementioned remuneration report, has not been prepared, in all materials respects, in accordance with the relevant GRI Criteria.

The procedures performed in a limited assurance engagement are less in extent than for a reasonable assurance engagement; consequently, the level of assurance obtained in a limited assurance engagement is substantially lower than the assurance that would have been obtained had a reasonable assurance engagement been performed. The selection of the assurance procedures is subject to the professional judgment of the independent practitioner.

Within the scope of our limited assurance engagement, which we performed in the months from October 2023 to March 19, 2024, we have, among other things, performed the following assurance procedures and other activities:

• Gaining an understanding of the structure of the Group’s sustainability organization and stakeholder engagement,
• Inquiries of the executive directors and relevant employees involved in the preparation process about the preparation process, about the internal controls related to this process and about disclosures in the sustainability reporting,
• Inquiries of the employees responsible for the materiality analysis on group level to obtain an understanding about the process to identify significant topics and corresponding reporting boundaries,
• Risk analysis, including a media analysis, on relevant information about the sustainability performance in the reporting period,
• Evaluation of data collection, validation and reporting processes as well as of the reliability of the reported data based on samples taken as part of site visits (also remote),
• Identification of likely risks of material misstatements in the sustainability report based on the relevant criteria,
• Analytical evaluation of the disclosures in the sustainability report,
• Reconciliation of selected disclosures with the corresponding data in the consolidated financial statements and the annual financial statements and combined management report,
• Consultation of selected internal and external documents,
• Evaluation of the presentation of the sustainability report,
• Evaluation of the implementation of the TCFD’s recommendations as part of the climate-related reporting on governance, strategy and risk management as well as key ratios and targets,
• Assessment of climate-related scenarios for plausibility based on inquiries of responsible employees and consultation of relevant documents,
• Evaluation as to whether the stated GRI implementation option is consistent with the key ratios in the sustainability report.

Practitioner’s Conclusion

Based on the work performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the sustainability report of the Company for the financial year from January 1 to December 31, 2023 has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the GRI Principles and with the recommendations of the TCFD.

Our conclusion does not relate to the chapter “SASB index”, any of the disclosures related to prior periods or references to external sources of documentation and websites, including their contents, nor to the remuneration report referred to in the sustainability report.

Restriction of Use

We issue this report as stipulated in the engagement letter agreed with the Company (including the “General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüfer and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (German Public Auditors and Public Audit Firms)” as of January 1, 2017 promulgated by the Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer (IDW)). We draw attention to the fact that the assurance engagement was conducted for the Company’s purposes and that the report is intended solely to inform the Company about the result of the assurance engagement. Consequently, it may not be suitable for any other purpose than the aforementioned. Accordingly, the report is not intended to be used by third parties for making (financial) decisions based on it.

Our responsibility is to the Company alone. We assume no responsibility with regard to any third parties. Our conclusion is not modified in this respect.

Frankfurt am Main/Germany, March 19, 2024

Deloitte GmbH
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

TRANSLATION
– German version prevails –