Rep. Salazar's Merck buys signal a big pharma bet worth up to $100K
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on September 9, 2026.
- BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway Inc. New Common Stock (BRK.B)Buy$1K – $15K
- CB UBS IRA Account Chubb Limited Common Stock (CB)Sell$15K – $50K
- IBM UBS Brokerage Account International Business Machines Corporation Common Stock (Partial sell$1K – $15K
- IBM UBS Brokerage Account International Business Machines Corporation Common Stock (Partial sell$1K – $15K
- MRK UBS IRA Account Merck & Company, Inc. Common Stock (MRK)Buy$15K – $50K
- MRK UBS IRA Account Merck & Company, Inc. Common Stock (MRK)Buy$15K – $50K
- MRNA UBS Brokerage Account Moderna, Inc. - Common Stock (MRNA)Partial sell$1K – $15K
- MRNA UBS Brokerage Account Moderna, Inc. - Common Stock (MRNA)Buy$1K – $15K
Salazar rotated out of insurance and legacy tech and into big pharma, with two Merck buys of up to $50,000 each landing the same August day she sold Chubb. The filing also shows private SpaceX shares bought in two separate accounts, a reminder that members are accessing pre-IPO names retail investors cannot touch. Disclosed 33 days after the trades.
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On August 19, 2026, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar made two separate purchases of Merck stock through her UBS IRA, putting as much as $100,000 combined into the name in a single session. That same day she exited her Chubb position, also held in the UBS IRA.
The simultaneous exit from Chubb and entry into Merck reads as a deliberate sector rotation: out of insurance, into large-cap pharmaceuticals. Earlier in the same filing period, she trimmed IBM in two separate partial sales on August 24, adding to the pullback from legacy technology.
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The filing also captured Moderna activity on August 19, with a partial sale and a fresh purchase both recorded on the same date. That kind of same-day sell-and-buy in one name reflects a rebalancing move within the same account structure, though the disclosure alone does not specify the reason.
This filing arrived 33 days after the earliest trades it covers, meaning the market had been moving on Merck, Chubb, and IBM for over a month before the public could see what Salazar had done. Four additional trades sit beyond what is detailed here, so the full scope of the rotation is broader than the highlighted positions suggest.