Name: Anila B. Merck is a very large pharmaceutical company. One of the scientists at Merck realized that Merck’s new drug for de-worming animals from parasites could also help fighting against river blindness, which is a disease that has hit places of most poverty. River blindness is a skin disease, which is transmitted by the bite of blackflies. This parasite can migrate into the eye and cause blindness. Unfortunately those who get the disease do not have the money to pay for this drug. The countries
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How has Merck been able to achieve substantial returns to capital given the large costs and lengthy time to develop drugs? Merck had a 14% increase in sales between 1997 and 1998 and 22% increase in sales from 1998 – 1999, and a 13% annual increase in earnings over the same period. Merck’s business strategy consists of two parts: (1) developing and marketing new drugs through internal research, and (2) developing partnerships with smaller biotechnology companies. Since 1995, Merck had launched
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Bergstedt Stance on Merck/ Overview: It is the view of the author to discuss in detail why and how Merck caused gross negligence in its marketing and labeling practices. During this discussion, I will outline several instances where Merck has plead guilty to numerous law suits spanning from the United States to Great Britain (UK). In addition, I will define ethics and based on ethical business practices and attempt to identify what Merck may have done to prevent such unethical
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Vioxx Decisions – Were They Ethical? In the late 1990s, a pharmaceutical company called Merck was a leader in this industry. The pharmaceutical industry required millions of dollars and great amounts of time to be invested in research and development. From 1995 to 2001, Merck was successful in releasing 13 major drugs into the market. One of these drugs was one that would treat rheumatoid arthritis. The drug, Vioxx, acquired the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2009 (Cavusgil
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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
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Executive Summary The pharmaceutical company Merck has traditionally sold medicines and products that have been developed through its internal research. So, it is not surprising to see that the company spends quite a large amount of money on research. This is reflected in its financial statement as given in the exhibit 1. The R&D expenditure is about 7% of Merck's revenues. The life cycle of a drug takes it from the research labs to three phases of testing, each increasingly complex, then through
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examined. The text also contemplates the actions that Merck, the maker of Vioxx, took during the product’s recall and how we can improve the current drug testing system to protect consumers. INTRODUCTION Merck, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, created Vioxx, a once best-selling painkiller. In 2004, the company learned that its drug increased the risk of stroke and heart attack. After a few different studies, Merck finally gave in and recalled the product. The company
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Blindness cases. Merck ultimately decided to distribute the drug themselves instead of making the patent available for generic use (as suggested in the AIDS case). According to UNICEF, they have donated over 2 billion Mectizan pills and over 80 million people are treated annually. Given that Merck is using corporate funds for this program, is Merck's donation of these drugs morally acceptable? Morally required? Explain. Do Merck's stockholders have any cause to complain when Merck spends their money
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Key Performance Indicators for Pfizer and Merck Overview In recent years, auditors have increased the amount of attention they give to nonfinancial measures because these measures can be very helpful in assessing the risk of revenue frauds. Most frauds of this nature involve accounting personnel falsifying financial information with the intent of materially misstating the financial statements. Nonfinancial measures are much more difficult for accounting personnel to manipulate, especially
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perspective of Merck. In this regard, the NPV of the licensing arrangement to Merck drop to $ 7.0973 million (shown in Figure 2). According to the draft of contract regarding to the licensing arrangement between Merck and LAB, the would-be royalty on the eventual sales of Davanrik seems to a must-be terms in the contract, contrary to a contingency provision. So to speak, assuming other things are constant and the royalty fee rate fixes at 5%, the bid to license Davanrik, at the standing point of Merck, should
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