Word: merck
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Novartis, which operates in 140 countries, last year booked sales of $19 billion, up 10% from 2000. While such competitors as GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb are entering a period of declining revenue growth as patents on their major drugs expire, Novartis is poised for several years of steady double-digit expansion. This year its shares in the U.S. are up about 10%--the best performance among major drug companies--even as the Morgan Stanley Capital USA Health Care Index, a basket of big drug stocks, has fallen about 25%. Novartis is the 17th most valuable company...
...help avert legislative action. Novartis donates antileprosy drugs to India, sells antimalaria drugs at cost to the World Health Organization and has established a research center in Singapore to develop treatments for Third World diseases like tuberculosis, whose sufferers can't pay much. (He is not alone in this. Merck has set up anti-AIDS programs in Botswana, and Aventis is helping tackle AIDS in South Africa.) Eight drug companies, including Novartis, have announced a drug-discount program in the U.S. that they say will save qualified patients 20% to 40% on their prescriptions. But Ron Pollack, director of Families...
...been disappointed. Earlier this year, it seemed that science had its best shot yet, with a large trial of a new vaccine that would use a novel strategy to protect the body against HIV. In September, however, the results were announced, and this vaccine too had failed. Its developer, Merck, has now released an analysis of the trial, and while the vaccine performed as poorly as reported, the reasons it failed provide insight into what might make it succeed next time...
...Merck vaccine used a different approach, called cell-mediated immunity. Scientists inserted three HIV genes into an ordinary cold virus and injected it into the body. Immune-system dendritic cells would, it was hoped, gobble up the virus and then display its gene markers--along with those of the HIV. This would teach the immune system's T cells to recognize and kill AIDS-infected cells...
...Merck, naturally, expects benefits from its good work. Sturchio acknowledges that CSR is becoming a non-negotiable requirement for any large corporation hoping to operate in the developing world. "Simply complying with regulations is not enough," he says. "Society expects more." Healthy societies are good for all kinds of business. "You could say that one reason we do this kind of work is that in the long run healthy people boost economic development, which will create robust markets for Merck products," says Sturchio. "Health leads to wealth, and there is a long-term benefit to our business." Nevertheless, Sturchio contends...