From Guinea to the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC , the world was dealing with the largest and most complex Ebola outbreaks since the virus was first discovered in As the outbreaks remained a global health challenge, scientists from Merck, along with numerous external collaborators from all sectors, remained at the forefront of the efforts to address this deadly disease.
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Skip to content. For over years, we've been guided by the view that great medicines and vaccines change the world. View by: Select year Merck became president of our company George Merck's son, George W. By , tuberculosis-related deaths in the U. Merck gave a talk at the Medical College of Virginia at Richmond, during which he made a famous statement about how the medical and pharmaceutical community could be successful: "We try to remember that medicine is for the patient.
Related links. Responsibility Supporting society, people and communities around the world is fundamental to our long-term success. Our leadership team Meet the leaders who guide our mission. Our culture and values It all comes back to inventing for life.
Decline Accept. You are leaving Merck. Cancel Continue. Welcome to Merck. Although Fosamax is intended to prevent bone loss, the medication may cause a loss of bone density. Patients reported bone fractures, and some developed a condition known as osteonecrosis of the jaw ONJ which caused in a loss of jawbone tissue. Hundreds of lawsuits were filed, claiming that Merck knew about the dangers of Fosamax and though many of the lawsuits were dismissed, court battles are still ongoing including a Supreme Court judgment which directed the lower courts reconsider a ruling that allowed lawsuits to go to trial.
Attempts to add warnings to the Fosamax label have been largely rejected by the FDA and the drug remains available in both brand name and generic form. Januvia sitagliptin is a newer medication for treating type 2 diabetes. It gained FDA approval in but like similar medications, has caused many different health problems for patients.
A related medication, Janumet, is a combination of sitagliptin and metformin and may also be responsible for a number of injuries. By , over patients had reported cases of pancreatitis as a result of Januvia. About 10 to 30 percent of these cases were fatal. Since then, hundreds of patients have reported pancreatic cancer and pancreatic disorder and patients, and their families have filed suit for compensation of these cases.
No settlements have been announced for any of the medications. Vaccine compensation for injuries falls under federal jurisdiction and compensated by federal funding, however a number of claims of drug injury and others of ineffectiveness are still under consideration for Merck vaccines Zostavax and Gardasil.
Lawsuits against Zostavax claim that instead of protecting patients against the Varicella Zoster virus, the vaccine caused them to develop a more severe infection resulting in painful blisters, scarring and nerve damage. No settlements have yet been decided but the number of lawsuits appears to be growing and may reach into the hundreds. If you or a loved one experienced serious complications from a drug or a medical device, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Merck had been acting president for more than a year.
The first major event of the younger Merck's tenure--which would last 25 years--was the merger with Philadelphia-based Powers-Weightman-Rosengarten, a pharmaceutical firm best known for antimalarial quinine. With the resultant expansion in capital, Merck initiated and directed the Merck legacy for pioneering research and development. In , he established a large laboratory and recruited prominent chemists and biologists to produce new pharmaceutical products.
Their efforts had far-reaching effects. En route to researching cures for pernicious anemia, Merck scientists discovered vitamin B Its sales, both as a therapeutic drug and as a constituent of animal feed, were massive. The s continued to be a decade of discoveries in drug research, especially in the field of steroid chemistry.
In the early s, a Merck chemist synthesized cortisone from ox bile, which led to the discovery of cortisone's anti-inflammation properties.
In , streptomycin, a revolutionary antibiotic used for tuberculosis and other infections, was isolated by a Merck scientist. Despite the pioneering efforts and research success under George W. Merck's leadership, the company struggled during the postwar years. There were no promising new drugs to speak of, and there was intense competition from foreign companies underselling Merck products, as well as from former domestic consumers beginning to manufacture their own drugs.
Merck found itself in a precarious financial position. Sharp and Dohme began as an apothecary shop in in Baltimore, Maryland. Its success in the research and development of such important products as sulfa drugs, vaccines, and blood plasma products matched the successes of Merck.
The merger, however, was more than the combination of two industry leaders. It provided Merck with a new distribution network and marketing facilities to secure major customers. For the first time, Merck could market and sell drugs under its own name. At the time of George W. Although Albert W. Merck, a direct descendant of Friedrich Jacob Merck, continued to sit on the board of directors into the s, the office of chief executive was never again held by a Merck family member.
Henry W. Gadsen became CEO in and, as was fashionable at the time, initiated a program of diversification. Among the businesses acquired in the late s and early s were Calgon Corporation, a supplier of water treatment chemicals and services; Kelco, a maker of specialty chemicals; and Baltimore Aircoil, a maker of refrigeration and industrial cooling equipment.
Many of these businesses were quickly divested after it was discovered that profits were hard to come by, but Calgon and Kelco remained part of Merck into the early s. Under Gadsen's emphasis on diversification, Merck's pharmaceutical operations suffered. In , John J. Honran succeeded the year reign of Gadsen. Honran was a quiet, unassuming man who had entered Merck as a legal counselor and then became the corporate director of public relations.
But Honran's unobtrusive manner belied an aggressive management style. With pragmatic determination Honran not only continued the Merck tradition for innovation in drug research, but also improved a poor performance record on new product introduction to the market. This problem was most apparent in the marketing of Aldomet, an antihypertensive agent. Once the research was completed, Merck planned to exploit the discovery by introducing an improved beta-blocker called Blocadren.
Yet Merck was beaten to the market by its competitors. Furthermore, because the year patent protection on a new drug discovery was about to expire, Aldomet was threatened by generic manufacturers. A similar sequence of events occurred with Indocin and Clinoril, two anti-inflammation drugs for arthritis. Under Honran's regime, the company introduced a hepatitis vaccine, a treatment for glaucoma called Timoptic, and Ivomac, an antiparasitic for animals. In addition, while Honran remained strongly committed to financing a highly productive research organization, Merck began making improvements on research already performed by competitors.
In , for example, Merck began to market Enalapril, a high-blood-pressure inhibitor, similar to the drug Capoten, which was manufactured by Squibb. Honran also embarked on a more aggressive program for licensing foreign products. Honran's strategy proved very effective. Between and , the company experienced a nine percent annual growth rate, and in the Wall Street Transcript awarded Honran the gold award for excellence in the ethical drug industry.
He was commended for the company's advanced marketing techniques and its increased production. At the time of the award, projections indicated a company growth rate for the next five years of double the present rate.
In , Honran claimed Merck had become the largest U. He attributed this success to three factors: a productive research organization; manufacturing capability that allowed for cost-efficient, high-quality production; and an excellent marketing organization. The following year, Honran resigned as CEO. In , his successor, Dr. Roy Vagelos, a biochemist and the company's former head of research, also was awarded the ethical drug industry's gold award.
Although Merck's public image was generally good, it had its share of controversy. This drug, prescribed to pregnant women in the late s and up until the early s, ostensibly prevented miscarriages. The 16 original plaintiffs claimed that they developed vaginal cancer and other related difficulties because their mothers had taken the drug.
Furthermore, the suit charged that DES was derived from Stilbene, a known carcinogen, and that no reasonable basis existed for claiming the drugs were effective in preventing miscarriages. A year before the suit, the Federal Drug Administration, or FDA, banned the use of DES hormones as growth stimulants for cattle because tests revealed cancer-causing residues of the substance in some of the animals' livers.
The FDA, however, did not conduct public hearings on this issue; consequently, a federal court overturned the ban. Under the plaintiffs' directive, the court asked the defendants to notify other possible victims and to establish early detection and treatment centers. Merck was not beleaguered by the DES lawsuit only. In , the company's name was added to a growing list of U.
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