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Merck

Revision as of 23:16, 9 January 2011 by Lisa G. Leming (talk | contribs) (SW: Updated personnel, created subsection for Vioxx, add category & internal links.)

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Merck is an international pharmaceutical company and publishes the industry standard Merck Drug Guide. Top competitors include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, and Sanofi-Aventis. Top brand name pharmaceuticals include Singulair (asthma), Cozaar and Hyzaar (hypertension) and Vytorin, Zetia and Zocor (cholesteral). Merck also manufactures Januvia (type 2 diabetes), Fosamax (osteoporosis), Cosopt and Trusopt (eye disease). The company manufactures childhood and adult vaccines for measles, mumps, hepatitis, and shingles.[1]

In the fiscal year ending in December of 2009, Merck reported global sales of approximately 27.43 billion dollars and had 100,000 employees. [2]

Contents

Acquisition of Schering-Plough

Schering-Plough was a global pharmaceutical company based in New Jersey, United States. It manufactured prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, animal health products, and personal care products. Well known brand names included the allergy medications Clarinex and Nasonex. The firm also specialized in anti-inflammatory, infectious disease, cancer, cardiovascular and women's health drugs. Schering-Plough's OTC products included Claritin allergy pills, Afrin nasal sprays, Dr. Scholl's foot care products and the Coppertone sun care line. Its products were marketed in some 140 countries.[3]

In 2009, Merck agreed to acquire Schering-Plough for $41 billion. [4]

Animal testing

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Merck does animal testing.

Facility information, progress reports & USDA-APHIS reports

For links to copies of a facility's U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Animal Plant Health Inspection (APHIS) reports, other information and links, see also Stop Animal Experimentation NOW!: Facility Reports and Information. This site contains listings for all 50 states, links to biomedical research facilities in that state and PDF copies of government documents where facilities must report their animal usage. (Search: Merck, Rahway, New Jersey; Schering Plough Research Institute, Kenilworth, New Jersey; Schering-Plough Animal Health, Terre Haute, Indiana.)

This facility performed animal experiments involving pain or distress but no analgesics, anesthetics or pain relievers were administered. For copies of this facility's USDA-APHIS reports, other information and links, see also Facility Reports and Information: Schering-Plough Animal Health, Elkhorn, NE. [5]

USDA AWA reports

As of May 26, 2009, the USDA began posting all inspection reports for animal breeders, dealers, exhibitors, handlers, research facilities and animal carriers by state. See also USDA Animal Welfare Inspection Reports.

Contract testing

Merck contract tests out to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). [6] Huntingdon Life Sciences is the 3rd largest contract research organization (CRO) in the world and the largest animal testing facility in all of Europe. Firms hire CROs to conduct animal toxicity tests for agrochemicals, petrochemicals, household products, pharmaceutical drugs and toxins. HLS has a long history of gross animal welfare violations. See also Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Animal cruelty & welfare violations

Stop Animal Exploitation Now! (SAEN) is a national research watchdog organization. [7] SAEN has included Merck among the worst violators of U.S. laws. According to Executive Director, Micheal Budkie:

"Drug and testing companies are violating federal law on a regular basis and endangering the health of the American People as a result. It should surprise no one that drugs like Vioxx came out of the Merck Corporation, where federal law is broken almost every month."

Merck amassed 8 violations in a 9 month monitoring period and an additional 10 Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) violations in 3 months following this period. One infraction involved an allegedly "illegal surgery", where holes were drilled into an animals skull and penetrated the brain. (Government reports and ranking statistics available upon request.) [8]

Viox (subsection)

See also Vioxx.

Other drug issues

Vytorin

Merck and Schering-Plough, which co-marketed the cholesterol drug Vytorin, went into damage-control mode taking out newspaper ads, reported Advertising Age in January 2008. The pharmaceutical companies' public relations campaign followed their reluctant publication of a study which revealed that neither drug in present in Vytorin reduced fatty plaque build-up in arteries. The study was completed in 2006, but Merck and Schering did not release it for 21 months, allegedly due to "complexity of the data and their own scientific concerns."

The drug companies' newspaper ads, which ran in the New York Times and USA Today, referred to the damning study as "a single study that has generated a lot of confusion." They stressed that the drugs "have been proven to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol." However, the study showed was that Vytorin was not "any better than generic Zocor in reducing the buildup of fatty plaque." Members of Congress called for an investigation into why the "massive advertisement campaign for Vytorin was allowed to continue," after the study was belatedly made public. Class-action lawsuits were file, alleging that Merck and Schering-Plough "misrepresented and withheld significant information" from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the public. [9] In July 2008, a major European study of over 1,800 patients and researchers at 173 hospitals and other sites found that Vytorin:

"was no better than placebo at lowering the risk of major cardiovascular events -- including heart attack, stroke, heart surgery and death -- in patients with aortic stenosis." Vytorin "did cut cholesterol levels about 60 percent," but that effect was previously known and is also seen when Zocor (one of two drugs that comprise Vytorin) is taken alone. The European study also observed an increase in cancer cases and deaths among patients taking Vytorin, but researchers said this was not likely due to the drug. [10]

Vaccine issues

Mercury levels

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In early 2005, the Los Angeles Times obtained a memo from Merck revealing that, prior to the first public disclosure, senior executives were concerned about mercury levels in vaccinations containing a widely used sterilizing agent. The March of 1991 memo revealed concerns about 6-month-old children getting a mercury dose as much as 87 times higher than guidelines for the maximum daily consumption of mercury from fish. According to Dr. Maurice R. Hilleman in a memo to the president of Merck's vaccine division:

"When viewed in this way, the mercury load appears rather large."

The memo was prepared as U.S. health authorities aggressively expanded their immunization schedule by adding five new shots for children in their first six months. Many of these shots, as well as some previously included on the schedule, contained thimerosal, an anti-bacterial compound that is nearly 50 % ethyl mercury, a neurotoxin. In 1999, federal health officials disclosed that many infants were being exposed to dangerously high mercury levels, following a review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, the memo revealed that Merck was aware of the concern much earlier.

As of February of 2005, over 4,200 claims have been filed in a special federal tribunal, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, by parents asserting that their children suffered autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders from mercury poisoning. Thimerosal has been largely removed from pediatric vaccines as a "precautionary measure". [11]

Gardasil

During 2006, five products received FDA approval, including Gardasil:

“The first vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer and genital warts caused by certain kinds of human papillomavirus.” Gardasil later became a subject of controversy when Gov. Rick Perry of Texas signed an executive order that required all girls entering the 6th grade to receive this vaccination, starting in September 2008. [12]

See also Gardasil.

Clinical trials

Toxic drug trials on foster children

See also foster child drug trials.

Tobacco issues

Merck was an early supporter of smoke-free workplaces. In 1988 Merck launched a corporate policy prohibiting smoking in all of their workplaces and that paid the full costs of approved smoking cessation classes for workers and their spouses. The policy covered over 29,000 U.S. workers. Merck CEO Roy Vagelos, M.D. stated before a Congressional hearing on March 17, 1994 that during the first eighteen months of their policy, the number of Merck employees who smoked fell by 25 percent. [13]

On April 4, 1993, William Ian Campbell, CEO of Philip Morris, wrote to Merck about Merck's nonsmoking workplace policy. Campbell explained why he believed the EPA's rating secondhand tobacco smoke a human carcinogen was flawed, and suggested a meeting to discuss "cost-effective ways to protect and respect the rights of all employees by accommodating non-smokers and smokers at Merck." In his letter, Campbell further cited the "arbitrary and damaging manner in which certain industries are made scapegoats." He suggested that PM and Merck could possibly become allies. Noel M. Howard, Director of Executive Communications at Merck wrote back to Campbell on May 14, 1995 and declined the meeting:

"Given our strong corporate commitment to a smoke-free workplace, and in light of Philip Morris' understandable interest in promoting the tobacco use, we do not believe that a meeting between representatives of our two companies would be productive." [14]

Political contributions

Merck gave $$1,497,944 to federal candidates in the 2008 election cycle through its political action committee (PAC); 51% to Democrats and 49% to Republicans. [15]

Public relations & lobbying

The company spent $$6,410,000 for lobbying in 2009. Of this total, $1,530,000 was to 12 outside lobbying firms with the remainder being spent using in-house lobbyists. [16]

Bone Measurement Institute

The Bone Measurement Institute is a front group formed by big drug maker Merck to help expand the market for its drug Fosamax. See also Bone Measurement Institute.

Personnel & board

  • Kenneth C. Frazier - President & CEO
  • Richard S. Bowles III, Ph.D. - Executive VP & Chief Compliance Officer
  • Willie A. Deese - Executive VP & President, Manufacturing
  • Mirian M. Graddick-Weir - Executive VP, Human Resources
  • Bridgette P. Heller - Executive VP & President, Consumer Care
  • Peter N. Kellogg - Executive VP & CFO
  • Peter S. Kim, Ph.D. - Executive VP & President, Merck Research Laboratories
  • Raul E. Kohan - Executive VP & President, Animal Health
  • Bruce N. Kuhlik - Executive VP & General Counsel
  • Michael Rosenblatt - Executive VP & Chief medical officer
  • J. Chris Scalet - Executive VP, Global Services, Chief Information Officer
  • Adam H. Schechter - President, Global Human Health
  • Mervyn Turner, Ph.D. - Chief Strategy Officer & Senior VP, Emerging Markets R&D, Merck Research Laboratories[17]

Key executives & salaries

Former executives

Board members

Contact

Merck
One Merck Drive
Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889

Phone: 908-423-1000

Fax: 908-735-1253

Web address: http://www.merck.com

Articles & sources

SourceWatch articles

References

  1. ↑ Company Description: Merck, Hoovers, accessed December 2009
  2. ↑ Key Merck & Co., Inc. Financials, Hoovers, accessed December 2010
  3. ↑ Company Description: Schering-Plough, Hoovers, accessed December 2009
  4. ↑ Company Description: Merck, Hoovers, accessed December 2009
  5. ↑ Facility Reports and Information: Facility Reports and Information: Schering-Plough Animal Health, Elkhorn, NE, SAEN, accessed January 2010
  6. ↑ Inside Customers, SHAC.net, accessed December 2009
  7. ↑ Description of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, Wiserearth accessed November 20, 2008
  8. ↑ Micheal Budkie Pharmaceutical/Testing Companies Among Nation’s Leaders for Federal Violations, Says Watchdog Group, SAEN, February 2007
  9. ↑ Once Again, Drug Companies Caught Data Doping, PR Watch, (Source: Advertising Age, January 22, 2008)
  10. ↑ Linda A. Johnson Schering-Plough, Merck's Vytorin misses study goal, Associated Press, July 21, 2008.
  11. ↑ Myron Levin Vaccine maker's '91 memo suggests mercury-level risk, Los Angeles Times, February 08, 2005
  12. ↑ Ralph Blumenthal Texas is First to Require Cancer Shots for Schoolgirls, New York Times, February 3, 2007
  13. ↑ Testimony of P. Roy Vagelos, MD, Chairman and CEO, Merck & Co, before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment Committee on Energy and Commerce: 940317, Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, March 1994
  14. ↑ Letter from N.M. Howard to W.I. Campbell, Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, May 1993
  15. ↑ 2008 PAC Summary Data, Open Secrets, accessed March 2010
  16. ↑ Merck & Co lobbying expenses, Open Secrets, accessed March 2010
  17. ↑ Executive DivisionMerck, accessed January 2011
  18. ↑ Merck & Co., Inc. Executives, Hoovers, accessed January 2011
  19. ↑ Raymond V Gilmartin, Forbes, accessed November 2007.
  20. ↑ Board of Directors, Merck, accessed January 2011

External articles

External resources

<tdo>resource_id=29711 resource_code=merck search_term=Merck</tdo>

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