Word: merck
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Some employers have come to believe that pregnancy leaves may pay off in the long run. Merck & Co., a New Jersey-based drug firm, grants an average of six weeks of paid pregnancy leave and an additional six months of unpaid personal leave if desired. "You can't close your eyes to the fact that the work force has totally changed," says Arthur Strohmer Jr., the company's executive director of human resources. "Increasingly, entrants are women of childbearing age and working mothers. You have to make some adaptations to that pool of talent if only to stay in business...
...happened last week when the Food and Drug Administration announced that it had approved commercial production of a new vaccine against hepatitis B, a virus that causes an incurable and sometimes fatal liver disease and strikes an estimated 200,000 new victims every year in the U.S. Developed by Merck, the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant, in partnership with Chiron, a small (1985 sales: $6 million) biotech firm in Emeryville, Calif., the product is the first genetically engineered vaccine approved for human use. "We're delighted that FDA has expressed such a positive view about the usefulness of recombinant technology...
...Merck, which funded much of the research and has licensed Chiron's technology for the new product, will sell the hepatitis B vaccine under the name Recombivax HB. The vaccine will join a handful of pioneering products of recombinant DNA, or gene splicing, that have reached the market, including human insulin (1982), human growth hormone (1985) and alpha interferon (1986). The FDA approval of Recombivax HB is expected to give a big boost to the public image of an industry that has been more promising than profitable. Said Chiron President Edward Penhoet: "We think this vaccine will usher...
...vaccine is the second developed for hepatitis B. But the other one, introduced in 1982 and also marketed by Merck, is somewhat less desirable because it must be made from the blood of infected individuals. Though there have been no reported cases of infection stemming from Merck's blood-based vaccine, the possibility that diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis B could be transmitted in blood products always exists. Recombivax HB eliminates that possibility, however slight...
Last year the 41 proposals we dealt with covered a wide range of corporate activity, from a call on Emerson Electric to adopt ethical criteria for accepting military contracts: to a demand that Merck & Co. cease making contributrions to charitable organizations and non-profit institutions: to an appeal to Standard Oil of California. Baxter Travenol, Texaco, and Xerox to abide by minimal standard of ethical conduct in their South African operations or withdraw from that country...