Monday, July 20, 2009

Credit to Merck -- Where Credit Is Due. . . .


Over the last twenty-plus years, Merck has donated over $3.75 billion to ending river blindness:

. . . ."When Merck made the decision more than 20 years ago to donate Mectizan to help fight river blindness, we dreamed that a milestone like this might some day be possible," said Richard T. Clark, chairman, president and CEO, Merck & Co., Inc. "It gives me and thousands of Merck employees and retirees enormous satisfaction and pride to know we are playing a role in eliminating a dreaded disease that has ravaged villages and millions of people and generations of families."

Since the program's inception, Merck has donated 2.5 billion tablets of Mectizan at an estimated value of $3.75 billion. Recently, Merck pledged up to $25 million in support of an initiative with the World Bank, the World Health Organization and other partners to eliminate the disease in Africa.

The Mectizan Donation Program now reaches more than 80 million people in Africa, Latin America and Yemen annually. . . .

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