Donation Programs:
Merck & Co., Inc.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

Merck's headquarters are in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. Employing more than 69,000 individuals, Merck conducts research and development at 11 major research centers in the US, Europe and Japan. In many countries outside the United States, Merck's affiliates are known as MSD or Merck Sharp & Dohme.

The company's mission statement is "to provide society with superior products and services -- innovations and solutions that improve the quality of life and satisfy customer needs -- to provide employees with meaningful work and advancement opportunities and investors with a superior rate of return."

Corporate Giving

Merck is engaged in community projects involving various issues such as safety and accident prevention for its employees and protection of the environment by minimizing energy use and reducing waste generation.

On a national level, Merck is working to ensure access to medicines in the United States. Merck has developed the Patient Assistance Program to provide temporary assistance to patients who have no access to any insurance coverage for prescription medications and are truly unable to afford prescription medications. Merck provides its medicines without charge through this program to the uninsured and those who cannot afford to pay for their medicines.

International Essential Medicine Donation Programs

Merck has the distinction of creating the initiative call the Mectizan Donation Program that is the largest, longest standing private-public partnership. Established in 1987, the Mectizan Donation Program, according to the Merck website, has provided more than 700 million tablets free of charge to people suffering from river blindness (onchocerciasis) in more than 30 countries. This partnership includes the World Health Organization, the World Bank, UNICEF, other non-governmental organizations, ministries of health and the individual communities themselves. The program currently reaches more than 30 million people annually. Additional information about the Mectizan Donation Program is available at the Merck website at www.merck.com/about/cr/mectizan

In 1998, the company expanded this program to include the prevention of lymphatic filariasis (also known as elephantiasis - see the section about GlaxoSmithKline and the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis - for more information about this disease) in regions where this disease co-exists with river blindness. Distribution has begun in four countries and plans are underway to expand the program.

Merck has made a long-term commitment to donate as much Mectizan as necessary to treat these two diseases with the goal of eliminating them as public health problems.

Please visit the Merck & Co Inc. website to learn more about the company and its private-public partnerships to improve global health.

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