" But if the deal is conditional, pre-commercial, or non-binding until approval, there is no disclosure requirement. "
That will be impossible to think that Merck will start spending 10s of millions if not more than 100M on construction in 2020 on a non binding agreement for a product which has not even yet published results in any peer reviewed journal , let alone applying for any approval in US or anywhere at that time. I just don't see how a corporate board will approve any such project. That is just my opinion , but will be glad to be wrong .