Merck Anaysis

Improvements in health care and life sciences are an important source of gains in health and longevity globally. The development of innovative pharmaceutical products plays a critical role in ensuring these continued gains. To encourage the continued development of new drugs, economic incentives are essential. These incentives are principally provided through direct and indirect government funding, intellectual property laws, and other policies that favor innovation. Without such incentives, private corporations, which bring to market the vast majority of new drugs, would be less able to assume the risks and costs necessary to continue their research and development (R&D). In the United States, government action has focused on creating the environment that would best encourage further innovation and yield a constant flow of new and innovative medicines to the market. The goal has been to ensure that consumers would benefit both from technological breakthroughs and the competition that further innovation generates. The United States also relies on a strong generic pharmaceutical industry to create added competitive pressure to lower drug prices. Recent action by the Administration and Congress has accelerated the flow of generic medicines to the market for precisely that reason. By contrast, in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Pfizer is the largest American pharmaceutical company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It competes with Merck and Glaxo, and markets such well-known medications as Celebrex and Viagra. However, the pharmaceutical industry as a whole has undergone changes in recent years with significant consolidation taking place and with increased scrutiny regarding the ways in which drugs are developed, tested and marketed. In addition, recent controversies have erupted regarding Merck's drug Vioxx, and Pfizer has been the target of unwanted publicity regarding its painkiller Celebrex. This research considers the strategic position of Pfizer, including its strengths and weaknesses as well

An article entitled, Leading Innovation in a Risk-Averse Healthcare Environment, by Michael O’Brien describes how decisions in healthcare innovation are being decided by hospital CFOs because budget plays such a large role in the ability to make health care advancements. Innovation is present on all levels, practitioners are creating new innovative medications and techniques that can boost research funding, CFOs are looking at innovative ways to restructure budgets to meet the rising cost demands and nurses and/or therapists are looking for innovative therapy applications to improve patient outcome and support successful healing once discharged from the hospital. Disruptive innovation is constantly present in medicine since this science is only a practice and is constantly evolving in the presence of new research. As a healthcare leader I encourage my peers to constantly be trying to find innovations in their practice. When a practice becomes stagnant there is limited chance for growth and an individual's motivation can be stunted. “Innovation requires that organizations let go of old work and take on new” (O’Brien, p.113)

Founded by two mutual acquaintances and former staff members of California Biotechnology Inc. (CalBio), Lorin Johnson and Randy Hamilton set out to build a company specializing in a specific area of need, such as inflammatory bowel disease. Their search throughout the international landscape was focused on the chemical compounds that would be the foundation for therapeutic drugs that serve as a benefit to the management gastric disorders. As these compounds were discovered by way of research, with the intent to align and contract with already licensed agreements if the price allows for the newly formed company to take part. One such compound that fit the need for the company was found

While some have identified Merck as a visionary company dedicated to a "core values and a sense of purpose beyond just making money" (Collins & Porras, 2002, p. 48), others point out corporate misdeeds perpetrated by Merck (e.g., its role in establishing a dubious medical journal that republished articles favorable to Merck products) as contradictory

Merck is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world today. Although encountered with success, it still faces many problems today while trying to be the market leader competing against its competition. While being research and development driven company, Merck now has to go beyond R&D to stay competitive in the pharmaceutical industry. The main issue that seems to come up is that how far it can progress with the dual challenge of hitting peak annual financial performance while keeping the research pipeline full continued to weigh on senior management. Through the late 80s to early 90s, Merck was able to boast

This paper will research the Product recall involving the Drug Company known as Merck, who produced the drug Vioxx use to treat osteoarthritis, and acute pain in adults. Looking at the relationships Merck had with government and lobbyist one can see what actions the drug company may have taken to lead them to this recall. In Addition, This paper will look at the actions Merck took in the approval process and recall of their drug. Using all information provided on this case this paper will decide whether Merck was ethically correct in bringing the drug to market and if they took the right steps in recalling it. Finally I will discuss the other stakeholder responsibilities and provide solutions to prevent this from happening in the future.

Research and Development: Merck is a research-driven company that has a new research and development model incorporating its business strategy. Merck hopes to improve the success of is R&D and to reduce costs by focusing on therapeutic areas that have unmet medical needs, and scientific and commercial opportunity. It plans to develop products within these therapeutic areas that are highly valued by patients and doctors.

Since its humble beginning as a small drugstore, Merck has placed a large amount of importance on improving the health and well-being of its customers. As drug patents expire and genetic forms of their top products become available, Merck’s strategy is to do the unexpected; instead of raising the price of their older products in favor of patent protected new drugs, Merck focuses on reducing their cost in order to better compete with their generic counterparts. Additionally, Merck’s plan for growth now encompasses a much more aggressive pursuit of new drugs in their pipeline through extensive research. Merck became the second largest health care company in the world after the merger with Schering-Plough in 2009 and has

The strategic implications for Vertex attempting to fund and develop four drugs are as following:

In the last several years, Merck’s individual R &D department has not been able to keep pace with declining revenues from existing products. It is only through Mergers and Acquisitions that Merck has supplemented this income.

Introduction AstraZeneca PLC (AstraZeneca, AZN:NYSE, AZN:LSE) is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It was formed in 1999 from the merger of Sweden’s Astra AB and UK’s Zeneca Group plc. Core Activities AstraZeneca is engaged in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and biological products for important areas of healthcare: Cardiovascular, Gastrointestinal, Infection, Neuroscience, Oncology, and Respiratory and Inflammation. One of the key benefits of the merger between Astra and Zeneca is seen as their portfolio of new products in development: AstraZeneca call this their 'product pipeline'.

These R&D labs usually concentrated on bringing out new technologies for self-commercialisation. This process can be viewed in the form of a funnel, where a large number of varied ideas and concepts can be trimmed down to few of those concepts and ideas that best meet the requirements of the company. (OECD, 2008) In recent times, companies have become more open with their innovation process, leading to revolution described as “Open Innovation” by Chesbrough (2003). This ‘open innovation’ model is a more dynamic model when compared the traditional model as there is much more interaction between knowledge assets outside the company as well as inside. Henry Chesbrough (2003) in his book “Open Innovation: New Imperative for creating and profiting from technology” defines open innovation as a concept in which companies must use ideas from inside as well as outside sources and find internal and external ways to reach the market in order to advance their technological capabilities. Open innovation combines these 3

As a science-based and patient-oriented healthcare company, we strive to be a global leader in growing areas of healthcare. Following a corporate transformation Novartis is focused on three

Analysis of the mission statement identifies several Merck stakeholders and what Merck envisions for each: