...Case Study: Merck and the Vioxx Recall Kelvin Gabel Benedictine University Case Study: Merck and the Vioxx Recall According to Lawrence and Weber (2014), former Merck CEO George W. Merck implied a corporate vision of social responsibility for Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck) when he stated in 1950 that medicine was for the people and that loyalty to that concept would lead to greater profits. On the surface, it appears Merck has historically lived its declared mission of putting people first. This is demonstrated by the company forfeiting patent and profits from the antibiotic streptomycin and the drug Mectizan (Lawrence, 2014). Merck was well rewarded for its people first philosophy. Though it was ranked fifth in asset and market value, it ranked first in profits. Additionally the company had a stellar reputation of being perceived as the most ethical and socially responsible of the major drug companies (Lawrence, 2014). Today Merck Pharmaceutical’s mission statement is “to discover, develop and provide innovative products and services that save and improve lives around the world (Merck, 2015).” Reading Merck’s current mission statement lacks both the compassion of placing people first and the implied social responsibility of Mr. Merck’s statement in 1950. To be contextually correct historically in forming a view of Merck and the Vioxx recall issue, I sought to find a corporate mission statement from the period of the recall which was in 2006. According to Culp...
Words: 1294 - Pages: 6
...Introduction Merck was established in the U.S. in 1891, but its roots trace back to Friedrich Jacob Merck’s purchase of a German drug store in 1668. Today the company is a top tier global entity, a “research-driven” pharmaceutical company “dedicated to putting patients first.” Merck’s mission is to “provide society with superior products that improve the quality of life and satisfy customer needs, provide employees with meaningful work and investors with a superior rate of return.” As a long time player in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, Merck has had extensive experience in assigning and dividing complex tasks among its many specialized departments. Specialization allows Merck to operate efficiently and bring new drugs to American patients. On May 20, 1999, the FDA approved Merck’s application to market Vioxx, a new arthritis pain-reliever. The effort to create a successful drug at Merck was no small task, not only did the company need to develop, test, and receive approval for a new product. It also needed to make sure the drug was successfully marketed to the right consumers. By the end of 1999, over 5 million prescriptions had been written for Vioxx and it had been launched in 47 countries. The Vioxx launch went particularly well, and Merck splashed its success across the front page of its Annual Report with the lead, “Vioxx: Our biggest, fastest and best launch ever.” New Vioxx sales came at an important time for Merck. The exclusive patents to four major drugs were...
Words: 492 - Pages: 2
...Vioxx Mass Tort Case Molly Waters HCM 5300 Professor Clark September 8, 2012 Vioxx Tort Case Pharmaceutical companies make new medications every day. These drugs go through rigorous testing and trials before they are put on the market for the public. Sometimes even after all of these tests and trials, drugs can cause major problems after they have been put in to the public market. When problems arise these drugs are normally taken off of the market for further testing, or off of the market for good. Law firms will then take on consumers cases to sue the pharmaceutical company. These are called tort lawsuits and if there are enough people suing then it is a mass tort lawsuit. This paper will look at the mass tort lawsuit against Vioxx. It will explain the problem, how it was addressed by the company, and who was found at fault. Vioxx is drug that was developed by the pharmaceutical company Merck. It was introduced in mid- 1999. Originally Vioxx was a medication that was prescribed to patients for pain. The drug was not on the market for too long before the drug was pulled off of the market. In 2004, Merck pulled the drug off of the market for good on reports that the painkiller increased risk for heart attacks and strokes in patients using it (Voreacos & Johnson, 2010). In the specific case of Merck&Co. vs Garza, the estate of Leonel Garza sued Merck over Mr. Garza’s untimely death. Mr. Garza had started taking Vioxx on March 27, 2001 after visiting his cardiologist...
Words: 1198 - Pages: 5
...Do you believe that Merck acted in a socially responsible and ethical manner with regard to Vioxx? Why or why not? In your answer, please address the company’s drug development and testing, marketing and advertising, relationships with government regulators and policymakers, and handling of the recall. No, Merck didn’t act in a corporate social responsibility in regards to Vioxx. Corporate social responsibility means that a corporation should act in a way that enhances society and its inhabitants and be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities, and their environment. Over a five year period from 1999 to 2004 over 139,000 people in the United States has had a heart attack or stroke as a result of taking Vioxx about 55,000 of them died. When a business is ranked on being highly successful they are mostly being ranked on profit not the amount of people they helped or cured. The pharmaceutical giant Merck that manufactured Vioxx was ranked number three of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies with sales of $30.78 billion dollars and profits of $7.8 billion. In the eight-page letter, the FDA says Merck engaged "in a promotional campaign for Vioxx that minimizes the potentially serious cardiovascular findings that were observed" in a clinical trial comparing Vioxx to naproxen, a less-expensive painkiller. "Your promotional campaign discounts the fact" that in the trial, "patients on Vioxx were observed to have a four to five-fold increase"...
Words: 1129 - Pages: 5
...9-201-023 R E V: M A R C H 25, 2003 RI CH A R D S. R U B A CK Merck & Company: Evaluating a Drug Licensing Opportunity Rich Kender, Vice President of Financial Evaluation & Analysis at Merck, was working with his team to decide whether his company should license Davanrik, a new drug with the potential to treat both depression and obesity. The small pharmaceutical concern that developed the drug, LAB Pharmaceuticals, lacked the resources to complete the lengthy approval process, manufacture the compound, and market the drug. LAB had approached Merck with an offer to license the compound. Under this agreement, Merck would be responsible for the approval of Davanrik, its manufacture, and its marketing. The company would pay LAB an initial fee, a royalty on all sales, and make additional payments as Davanrik completed each stage of the approval process. Merck In 2000, Merck & Co., Inc. was a global research-driven pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of human and animal health products, directly and through its joint ventures, and provides pharmaceutical benefit management services (PBM) through Merck-Medco Managed Care. Since 1995, Merck had launched 15 new products including Vioxx™ for the treatment of osteoarthritis, Fosamax™ for the treatment of osteoporosis and Singulair™ for treating asthma. The Company earned $5.9 billion on 1999 sales1 of $32.7 billion, about a 20% increase from 1998. Exhibits 1 and 2 contain Merck’s...
Words: 2375 - Pages: 10
...9-201-023 REV: MARCH 25, 2003 RICHARD S. RUBACK Merck & Company: Evaluating a Drug Licensing Opportunity Rich Kender, Vice President of Financial Evaluation & Analysis at Merck, was working with his team to decide whether his company should license Davanrik, a new drug with the potential to treat both depression and obesity. The small pharmaceutical concern that developed the drug, LAB Pharmaceuticals, lacked the resources to complete the lengthy approval process, manufacture the compound, and market the drug. LAB had approached Merck with an offer to license the compound. Under this agreement, Merck would be responsible for the approval of Davanrik, its manufacture, and its marketing. The company would pay LAB an initial fee, a royalty on all sales, and make additional payments as Davanrik completed each stage of the approval process. Merck In 2000, Merck & Co., Inc. was a global research-driven pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of human and animal health products, directly and through its joint ventures, and provides pharmaceutical benefit management services (PBM) through Merck-Medco Managed Care. Since 1995, Merck had launched 15 new products including Vioxx™ for the treatment of osteoarthritis, Fosamax™ for the treatment of osteoporosis and Singulair™ for treating asthma. The Company earned $5.9 billion on 1999 sales1 of $32.7 billion, about a 20% increase from 1998. Exhibits 1 and 2 contain Merck’s Income...
Words: 2360 - Pages: 10
...9-201-023 REV: MARCH 25, 2003 RICHARD S. RUBACK Merck & Company: Evaluating a Drug Licensing Opportunity Rich Kender, Vice President of Financial Evaluation & Analysis at Merck, was working with his team to decide whether his company should license Davanrik, a new drug with the potential to treat both depression and obesity. The small pharmaceutical concern that developed the drug, LAB Pharmaceuticals, lacked the resources to complete the lengthy approval process, manufacture the compound, and market the drug. LAB had approached Merck with an offer to license the compound. Under this agreement, Merck would be responsible for the approval of Davanrik, its manufacture, and its marketing. The company would pay LAB an initial fee, a royalty on all sales, and make additional payments as Davanrik completed each stage of the approval process. Merck In 2000, Merck & Co., Inc. was a global research-driven pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of human and animal health products, directly and through its joint ventures, and provides pharmaceutical benefit management services (PBM) through Merck-Medco Managed Care. Since 1995, Merck had launched 15 new products including Vioxx™ for the treatment of osteoarthritis, Fosamax™ for the treatment of osteoporosis and Singulair™ for treating asthma. The Company earned $5.9 billion on 1999 sales1 of $32.7 billion, about a 20% increase from 1998. Exhibits 1 and 2 contain Merck’s...
Words: 2603 - Pages: 11
...1 Ethics in the World of Business Listen to the Chapter Audio on mythinkinglab.com CASE 1.1 Explore the Concept on mythinkinglab.com Merck and the Marketing of Vioxx On September 30, 2004, Merck & Co. announced the withdrawal of Vioxx, its highly profitable pain reliever for arthritis sufferers, from the market.1 This announcement came only seven days after company researchers found in a clinical trial that subjects who used Vioxx more than 18 months had a substantially higher incidence of heart attacks. Merck chairman and CEO Raymond V. Gilmartin described the action as “the responsible thing to do.” He explained, “It’s built into the principles of the company to think in this fashion. That’s why the management team came to such an easy conclusion.”2 In the lawsuits that followed, however, damaging documents emerged casting doubt on Merck’s claim that it had acted responsibly by taking appropriate precautions in the development and marketing of the drug. For decades, Merck’s stellar reputation rested on the company’s emphasis on science-driven research and development. Merck employed some of the world’s most talented and best-paid researchers and led other pharmaceutical firms in the publication of scientific articles and the discovery of new medicines for the treatment of serious conditions that lacked a satisfactory treatment. For seven consecutive years in the 1980s, Merck was ranked by Fortune magazine...
Words: 14520 - Pages: 59
...Conflict and Change Harvard Case Study Professor: Robert Lazer PhD Team: Zerrin Hejazi, Mark Klabonski, Elizabeth Lamb, Hari Thenneti Pandurangamoorthi, & Hareshkumar Surani The History of Merck U.S. sales office opened in and George Merck, Heinrich’s grandson, was appointed head of the U.S. branch Friedrich Jacob Merck opened Merck in Germany 1668 1827 Heinrich E Merck transformed the business and Merck began manufacturing 1887 Merck merged with Philadelphia pharmacy Sharp & Dohme 1891 The renamed company Merck & Co. opens for business 1953 2009 Merck merged with ScheringPlough Corporation and Organon BioSciences Pharmaceutical Industry • The average drug development time is over fifteen years with an average R&D expenditure of $800 million. • The FDA requires three phases of testing to assess safety and effectiveness. o Test results dictate what is displayed on the drug’s label and how the doctor will prescribe it. • Follow-up studies (Phase 5) can be performed to assess the drug after market release (Phase 4) and amend the drug label for improved sales. Pharmaceutical Success • 1981 to 2001, Merck experienced an upward trend on several industry metrics. • Their Return on Sales (ROS) for their Human Pharma line peaked at just over 40% in 2001 with an average of 24% . • The early 1990’s exhibited a downward trend just prior to Gilmartin assuming the role of CEO. Pharmaceutical Success ...
Words: 3826 - Pages: 16
...Bottom of Form |Read full version essay Case Analysis : Pharma Industry | |Case Analysis : Pharma Industry | |Print version essay is available for you! You can search Free Term Papers and College Essay Examples written by students!. | |Join Essays24.com and get instant access to Case Analysis : Pharma Industry and over 30,000 other Papers and Essays | | | | | |Category: Business | |Autor: anton 06 June 2011 ...
Words: 4303 - Pages: 18
...Case Studies Solutions Case Studies Solutions,Article Writing,Assignments,Research Work,Home Work MenuSkip to content Home How We Work ? Refund Policy How to Order ? Disclaimer Contact Us Finance Cases List POSTED ON MARCH 8, 2013 Hello, If u want us to solve any case study from below list, do contact us anytime, We are here to provide the experience, expertise, and professionalism that you are looking for , Our tutors are available 24/7 to assist you what you need, Click Here to submit your Order. ======================================================================================= Acquisition of Consolidated Rail Corp. by Benjamin C. Esty Airbus A3XX: Developing the World’s Largest Commercial Jet by Benjamin C. Esty American Chemical Corp.by William E. Fruhan, John P. Goldsberry American Home Products Corp.by David W. Mullins AQR’s Momentum Funds by Daniel B. Bergstresser, Lauren H. Cohen, Randolph B. Cohen, Christopher Malloy Arundel Partners: The Sequel Project by Timothy A. Luehrman AXA MONY by Andre F. Perold, Lucy White Beta Management Co. by Michael E. Edleson Butler Lumber Co. by Thomas R. Piper Cartwright Lumber Co.by Thomas R. Piper Citigroup 2007: Financial Reporting and Regulatory Capital by Edward J. Riedl, Suraj Srinivasan Clarkson Lumber Co. by Thomas R. Piper Cooper Industries, Inc. by Thomas R. Piper Cost of Capital at Ameritrade by Erik Stafford, Mark L. Mitchell Debt Policy at UST, Inc. by Mark L. Mitchell Dell’s Working Capital...
Words: 3635 - Pages: 15
...| The Case of the Unidentified Industries-2006 | | In this case, a summary sheet which contains 14 sets of financial data from 14 different industries is provided. The task is to match 14 different firms with 14 industries by distinguishing the differences (e.g. sources of financing, profitability, the inventory turnover and the accounts receivable collection period) in the financial structures. 1. Advertising agency: the matching industry is E. As a service firm, it does not contain inventory, so first of all, it can be narrowed down to E, G, M, and N. And generally B to B firms provide credit terms to their customers which result in receivables collection periods(RCP) is larger than 30 days, therefore it can be further narrow to E,G,N. Furthermore, based on the given hint, the media purchase is made on behalf of the client, which means the account receivable and account payable should be roughly equal, since the agency does not pay for the media services until their client pays. 2. Airline: the matching industry is M. Similar to Ad agency, it is a service firm, so its inventory is zero as well (G, M, N), and moreover, it is also a Business to Customer firm, its RCP is relative short(less than 30 days), so only M (RCP=12) is left which matches the description. 3. Bookstore chain: the matching industry is B. Retail firms like bookstore chain are likely to have shorter RCP (less than 30 days), which means only A, B, H, I, K and M match this description...
Words: 1731 - Pages: 7
...MANG 200: Principles of Management Final Assessment: Management Report Fall 2012 The Great Place to Work Institute, a global research and management consultancy that recognizes the best workplaces in over 45 countries worldwide, today released its inaugural list of ‘Top Companies to Work for in the UAE’. The official list is a ranking of the nation’s 10 best employers based on the confidential feedback from their staff and an independent culture audit of their HR practices by the Institute. The benchmarking study assesses what companies do on a daily basis to earn and sustain the trust and respect of their people. Two-thirds of a company's score is based on the results of the Institute's proprietary Trust Index survey, which is sent to a random sample of employees from each company. The survey asks questions related to their attitudes about management's credibility, job satisfaction, and workplace camaraderie. The other third of the scoring is based on the company's responses to the Institute's Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring, communication, and diversity. UAE-based companies from a wide range of industry sectors participated in the program in 2010. In accordance with the practices of the Great Place to Work Institute, only those companies recognized for their exemplary employee management and engagement processes are recognized on the list of “Top Companies”. A total of 10...
Words: 1285 - Pages: 6
...Airborne’s Marketing Strategy Patrick Legendre Business Ethics Prof. Martin Wednesday, October 16, 2013 I. Case Overview Dietary Supplement Industry The growing dietary supplement industry, which includes the hundreds of weight loss and immune support supplements on the market, grosses approximately $20 billion annually (Burke). As established by the Dietary Supplement and Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), these supplements are not required to undergo testing or receive approvals from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Instead, companies must notify the FDA of all new products and ensure that they are safe for consumers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does not prohibit dietary supplements from claiming health benefits but rather requires thorough clinical trials to support such statements. In 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services investigated 127 supplements and found that 20 percent of them were illegally labeled and lacked the necessary scientific evidence to support the proclaimed health benefits (Ibid). Many of these illegal labels included confirmatory statements on curing or preventing diseases such as diabetes or cancer. The report also revealed that 7 percent of the surveyed supplements did not have the mandatory disclaimer stating that the FDA had not evaluated statements on the label for validity (Ibid). Airborne Case Airborne, a popular vitamin and herbal supplement known for its controversy over preventing the common cold was invented...
Words: 3333 - Pages: 14
...attention will be given to the specific activities of the marketing department, sales group, or advertising function in implementing strategic decisions. We will take the viewpoint of the general manager and the senior marketing executive to address the issues of: ➢ Formulating segmentation and focus strategies ➢ Understanding, attracting and keeping valuable customers ➢ Positioning the business to achieve an advantage over competitors ➢ Identifying and exploiting growth opportunities ➢ Allocating resources across businesses and segments ➢ Managing the channels for gaining access to the served markets, and ➢ Aligning the organization to changing market requirements. The course will use a mix of cases, lecture/discussion, outside speakers, and group projects. This material will be integrated throughout the course with four over-riding themes. First, that successful market strategies deliver superior customer value; second, that successful implementation of these strategies requires a high level of market orientation – a market-driven firm has superior skills in understanding, attracting, and keeping customers; third, that the internet...
Words: 3247 - Pages: 13
