Word: merck
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Months after the charging of the first still, an operator opens the last centrifuge (like a housewife's spin-dryer) at the far end of the 100,000-sq. ft. production area. A label on the wall proclaims: "KE Pure" (KE is Merck's intramural abbreviation for cortisone). The bottom and sides of the centrifuge are thickly coated with a clammy white powder. From the looks of it, it might be talcum or aspirin. But it is far more precious: 35 lbs. of KE pure is enough to make 635,000 tablets of 25 milligrams each, enough...
This week the first cortisone from the Danville production line, now pressed into tablets and packed 40 to a bottle, was shipped out. And after cortisone, there would soon be hydrocortisone, latest and most potent of this group of hormones. A team of Merck chemists synthesized it after others had thrown up their hands and declared the job impossible. It is as good as cortisone in many ways, better in some. Whatever its final place in medicine, there can be no question of its eventual value in probing the secrets of the human body...
What lies in the still more distant future for Merck & Co.? One of the most forward-looking experiments now under way at Merck is designed to measure fatigue. A laboratory rat is placed in a tank of water, and with each stroke of a foreleg, he sets off a series of complex electronic devices to record his acceleration. From this, Merck scientists hope to learn more about muscular fatigue in general, and how it can be influenced by hormones. Beyond that, neither George Merck nor his 425 scientific and medical researchers can tell, and probably they would not if they...
Public Trust. At 58, George Merck looks like the priceless catalyst in this whole process that he is. A blond, blue-eyed giant (6 ft. 5 in.) with an easy smile and an exuberant capacity for work (he spends his days, he says, "half at the New York office, half at Rahway, and half at home"), he takes his company's role and reputation with dedicated seriousness. Wihen Merck researchers find a new product, the company gets it on the market as fast as it can, then lowers the price as fast as production will allow. Within a year...
...Merck sets his own public responsibilities as high as his company's. Before World War II, he served (unpaid) on the Munitions Board's Chemical Advisory Committee. At the height of the war, he also directed all the Government's sprawling research on biological warfare (for which he was later awarded the Medal for Merit). Merck still makes frequent trips to Washington as a consultant to Defense Secretary Lovett. His public-duty commitments range from his local zoning board, his local hospital and state chamber of commerce, to the executive council of the American Cancer Society...