Merck & Co., Inc.

Table of Contents

Development and Testing1

Marketing and Advertising2

Relationships with the Government Regulators and Policy Makers3

Handling of the Recall4

Merck & Co., Inc

Development and Testing

The fact that scientists working at Merck & Co., Inc. always attach great importance to the groundbreaking research that helped them to launch a number of important drugs. Research is a key to the success of Merck & Co., Inc. and a major component of the overall company strategy. The company conducts research in many therapeutic categories. Engaging in research and development, Merck & Co., Inc. is a recognized leader in scientific discovery. Scientists at Merck & Co., Inc. utilizes the most advanced technologies such as bioinformatics, combinatorial chemistry, genomics, high-performance screening drug candidates (HTS - High Throughput Screening), pharmacogenomics, recombinant DNA techniques and computer modeling of molecules (Okie, 2005).

It is from this company Merck & Co., Inc. occupies a leading position in the field of scientific discovery. The process of drug development and testing at Merck are very complex and cross functional. The model of research testing and development at Merck is because of the concepts, achievements and high demand of its products in the market. In the case of Vioxx, This is the biggest scandal in the history of medicine. For many years, the U.S. laboratory Merck did not tell the truth about the safety of its anti-inflammatory miracle, VIOXX (rofecoxib). The VIGOR study, if it actually reported fewer gastrointestinal complications with Vioxx, however, reveals a disturbing fact: there are four times more infarcts in the group taking the new drug. With the scandal of Vioxx disturbing side effects, it raised several important questions on the testing and development at Merck (Nussmeier, 2005). While testing the new drug, the management of R & D should consider the effects of increased amount of harmful substance that could affect the overall health system.

The potential damage to the cardiovascular system was then at the end of the reason for the worldwide recalled of Vioxx. In a clinical study involving 2600 patients, the manufacturer "APPROVe" baptized, Vioxx was tested as a means of long-term prevention of colon polyps. After three years of daily intake of 25 milligrams of Vioxx, the routine monitoring of the data showed, however, that 45 of the patients had suffered "serious thrombotic events" and in the control group, there were only 25 (Okie, 2005). For the first time, there is a tangible indication of an increased to the double risk of heart attack and stroke. If 400 patients take Vioxx for one year, would suffer severe thrombosis according to the British Drug Administration. However, this effect in the study was only after more than eighteen months of treatment have been demonstrated. This was something that the management at Merck had to make public as it the prime and ethical obligation as a drug manufacturer giant (Fitzgerald, 2004).

Marketing and Advertising

We have long believed that the pharmaceutical industry working primarily for our welfare. Now we discover that most of these firms share a primary goal is ...