Martes, Abril 28, 2020

Merck and Company Strategy by Jolito Ortizo Padilla

                                   The Merck & Co. Inc. Case Study
                                            by Jolito Ortizo Padilla


In mid 2005, the huge pharmaceutical firm, Merck &Co. Inc., faces more than 4,200 state and federal lawsuit. In one suit, Merck is alleged to have received payments from third parties, such as insurance companies, unions, and employee health plans. Many suits involve Vioxx, which is a drug that Merck withdraw from the market in September 2004 after a company sponsored test found that there could be an increased risk of heart attacks and stroke for those who took the medicine after 18 months of daily usage.

History

Merck is an American legend and icon of a firm. Its is a global pharmaceutical company and was established in 1891. The company's core business is the discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of a variety of products, mostly to improve human and animal health. Merck sells product through drug wholesalers and retailers, hospitals, clinics, government and managed health service providers.

Overtime, Merck has devoted to increasing access to and delivering  donated medicines through far reaching programs to those people who need them-oftentimes doing so for no profit or revenue. Through the 1980's, the company publishes proved to be successful as a research driven firm, keeping the pipeline filled with new and innovative products. More recently, Merck has also discovered and introduced many major new drugs, including Mevacor (for high cholesterol) and Vasotech (for high blood pressure).

In the year 1990, Merck acquired several companies. In 1991, the company's centennial year, Merck's sales were around $9 Billion., which positioned the company to have 5% of the global market share in prescription drugs: the largest share of the world market. In 1994, Merck expanded internationally by forming subsidiaries in Cyprus, Germany, Holland, Peru, and South Korea and it entered a joint venture in China to manufacture and market its product.

In the late 1990's , Merck had pulled several products such as the Wyeth Diet Drug Redux and Pondimin (known as commonly as "fen-phen") off the market. Litigation from these products have lasted for years, and reserves allocated for this problem are in excess of $21 billion. To date Merck spent  over $800 million to cover its legal defense,

In 2002, Merck obtained FDA approval for