Merck Animal Health to acquire Raleigh poultry innovator TARGAN

Raleigh-based TARGAN, a privately held innovator of biodevices for the poultry industry, will be acquired by Merck Animal Health, the world’s second-largest animal health company by revenue, for an undisclosed price.

The proposed acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, the two companies announced.

“Merck Animal Health has been a foundational partner of TARGAN since our inception through its belief and commitment to scientific excellence and a common goal of bringing technological innovation to the livestock industry,” said Ramin Karimpour, TARGAN’s founder and chief executive officer. “Through this proposed acquisition, TARGAN will be able to access resources and infrastructure of Merck Animal Health, which will be critical in deploying TARGAN’s innovative biodevice technology along with Merck Animal Health’s broad portfolio of poultry vaccines for customers.”

Upon closing, the acquisition is expected to broaden Merck Animal Health’s portfolio in commercial poultry operations with TARGAN’s WingScan, an automated system that uses vision technology to identify and sort chicks by gender, processing up to 160,000 chicks per hour. 

The technology, which can scale to any size hatchery operation, captures high-resolution images of each chick’s feathers and analyzes them in real-time using advanced engineering capabilities and proprietary algorithms.

Chick sexing allows hatcheries to separate females from males at a young age. This is important because the two genders require different feeding, housing and handling practices.

The acquisition also brings the capability of high-speed precision ocular spray technology, which administers respiratory and coccidiosis vaccines, among others, to day-old chicks. 

“The acquisition of TARGAN’s best-in-class biodevice technology for use in commercial hatcheries complements and accelerates our growing biopharmaceutical presence in poultry and increases our ability to deliver significant customer value globally,” said Rick DeLuca, president of Merck Animal Health. “Additionally, TARGAN brings device development capabilities that will further strengthen our ability to provide animal health solutions across species.”
Merck Animal Health has invested in TARGAN since 2017 and has been one of the company’s largest shareholders.

“This proposed acquisition is great news for one of our home-grown ag-tech companies,” said Paul Ulanch, Ph.D., senior director of focused initiatives for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. “Merck’s capabilities will further commercialize TARGAN’s innovative technologies in support of more efficient animal protein production to feed a growing global population. This is especially important to North Carolina agriculture as the state is the number one producer of poultry and eggs in the country, and these represent the largest component of the NC agriculture economy.”

The deal is reminiscent of a similar acquisition in 2007, when Pfizer Animal Health (now Zoetis), the world’s largest animal health company by revenue, acquired Embrex, a Durham-based poultry technology company, for about $155 million.

TARGAN was founded in 2015 and has been supported by investments or debt financing from Merck Animal Health Ventures, Mountain Group Partners, NovaQuest Capital Management of Raleigh, Oval Park Capital of Raleigh, Symbiotic Capital, and Live Oak Bank of Wilmington.

In 2023, the company moved into a new 100,000-square-foot facility on Six Forks Road, just inside Raleigh’s inner beltline. The facility houses TARGAN’s research and development, sales and marketing, and leadership teams, and also includes a state-of-the-art manufacturing floor for the development of high-speed, automated systems designed to improve animal protein production.

TARGAN employed about 120 people at the time and had plans to reach 200.

Merck Animal Health, known as MSD Animal Health outside of the United States and Canada, is a division of Merck & Co., a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Rahway, N.J. Merck Animal Health reported $6.35 billion in global revenue in 2025.