Merrill Lynch's role as an adviser in the $6.5bn (€5.6bn) merger of Biogen and Idec, the US pharmaceutical groups, has catapulted the bank up the US merger and acquisition league table.

Merrill, which is advising Idec, has moved up four places to third in the US M&A league league tables, according to Dealogic, the investment banking data specialists. Days before the end of the first half of the year Merrill has jumped ahead of Morgan Stanley in fourth and Citigroup in sixth. In the global table Merrill is second.