Merck & Co., Inc.

Merck & Co. Inc., a large U.S. public pharmaceutical company, has faced several important ethical and social responsibility tests over the years. Established in 1891, Merck discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets vaccines and medicines in more than 20 therapeutic categories. The company has approximately 60,000 employees and sells products in approximately 150 countries. Worldwide sales in 2005 were more than $22 billion. The firm has always had a “patient first” approach to doing business as indicated by George Merck, the son of the founder, who stated that Merck tries never to forget that medicine is for the people, not for the profits. This view is currently reflected in the company's values, which states that Merck's business is preserving and improving human life. Although the firm has faced many challenges, two of the more significant ethical and social responsibility issues confronted by Merck include whether to produce and distribute a drug to help cure river blindness and whether to recall its arthritis drug Vioxx.

In terms of the first major issue faced by Merck, river blindness is an eye and skin disease caused by a worm that is transmitted to humans through the bite of a fly. The baby or larval worms then move through the body migrating in the skin and the eye causing itching, severe skin disease, and after repeated years of exposure, blindness. Merck researchers discovered that it was highly likely that by spending tens of millions of dollars they could develop the cure for river blindness. The problem was that the millions of people afflicted by the disease lived in parts of the world (primarily Africa) where they could not afford to pay for the drug. Other pharmaceutical companies, foundations, governments, and health organizations were not interested in paying for the development of the drug. Other concerns related to the risk of side effects for humans that might then affect the sales of Merck's animal drug, or that the human drug might be diverted into the black market, undercutting sales of the animal drug. The company also risked creating a precedent both internally among its researchers and externally among the public that might be difficult to meet in the future in terms of developing other important drugs with little or no financial return expected.

Despite the costs and the risks, Merck, through the leadership of its CEO Roy Vagelos, decided to spend the money. The drug, known as Mectizan, was not only developed but also distributed by Merck for free for years beginning in 1987. The decision did end up having indirect financial benefits for the firm, which according to Dr. Vagelos related primarily to the recruitment of top researchers. In December 2002, the World Health Organization declared river blindness virtually eradicated as a world disease, with the program reaching 40 million people annually in more than 30 countries.

The second major ethical and social responsibility issue places Merck in a potentially more negative light. The issue involves what has been perceived as Merck's delayed decision to recall its arthritis drug Vioxx, despite apparent knowledge of numerous deaths caused by the drug. Merck pulled its $2.5 billiona-year drug off the market on September 30, 2004, when a study indicated that it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who took the drug for more than 18 months. The issue appears similar to that faced by A. H. Robins Company, which was eventually forced into bankruptcy in the mid-1980s after facing lawsuits due to its allegedly defective “Dalkon Shield” intrauterine birth control device.

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