Word: merck
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
While many U.S. companies grumble that they cannot compete in the tough global environment, Merck pulls in more than half its sales from overseas customers. At a time when much of corporate America is focused on the next quarter's bottom line, Merck plows a higher chunk of its revenues into research and development (11%) than any rival drug company. Right now it has 50 new medicines in the works. And while other corporate chieftains spend much < of their time prowling for acquisitions, Vagelos prefers to look inward, spurring the research effort, boosting productivity and instilling a keenly competitive spirit...
...giant white banner in Merck's campus-like Rahway headquarters reminds visitors that they have arrived at AMERICA'S MOST ADMIRED COMPANY, an accolade given the firm by a FORTUNE magazine survey in January. But Vagelos finds such praise unsettling. Says he: "You'll die if you sit on your laurels...
...ranks of generic-drug producers who do little or no research and sell copies of older drugs at deep discounts. Their share of the $28.3 billion-a-year U.S. market for prescription drugs is likely to double by 1990, from $1 billion in 1987. Name-brand drugmakers like Merck must produce or perish...
...Merck's drugs speak for themselves. An astounding 13 each rang up more than $100 million in 1987 sales, well ahead of Britain's Glaxo Holdings, which has five products in that rarefied range. Among Merck's best sellers are Vasotec, a blood pressure-lowering drug; the antibiotics Primaxin and Noroxin; Pepcid, used to treat peptic ulcers; the anti-inflammatories Clinoril and Indocin; an antiglaucoma agent named Timoptic; and the hepatitis fighter Recombivax HB, the first genetically engineered vaccine licensed for human...
Perhaps the most wondrous of Merck's wonder drugs is its newest, a substance called lovastatin that lowers cholesterol levels in the body by up to 40% and is marketed under the brand name Mevacor. Its development illustrates how Merck achieves breakthroughs via a combination of dogged lab work, close cooperation with FDA officials and a painstaking preoccupation with the safety of potential patients...