Investor Sues Merck Executives, Board Over Misleading Comments

Leaders at Merck & Co. Inc. are facing a new derivative shareholder lawsuit over allegations that they made misleading comments about traction in China over its HPV vaccine.

“Merck has suffered and will continue to suffer significant financial and reputational harm because of the wrongs committed by” its leadership, the Vladimir Gusinsky Revocable Trust said in a complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey. Merck’s executives and board of directors breached their fiduciary duties and unjustly enriched themselves, the trust alleges.

The trust, which has held Merck stock since 2004, named current and ...