Merck Pharmaceutical Company - Essay Example

Merck Pharmaceutical products are mainly therapeutic agents, for the treatment of various human and animal disorders. In fact the basic source of income for the company comes from the revenues derived from the filling and management of prescriptions and health management programs (Banks, 2001). Merck & Co., Inc. is also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the USA and Canada, with the headquarters of the company located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey and was established as the United States subsidiary of the German company which is currently known as Merck KGaA.

Similar to the German assets in the United States, Merck & Co. was expropriated in 1917 during the First World War and set up as an independent company. In fact statistics and data suggest that this company is presently one of the seven largest pharmaceutical companies in the world both by market capitalization and revenue. Merck & Co. or MSD is also known as a global research-driven pharmaceutical company. It discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of unique products to improve human and animal health.

Each and every organization requires leadership because all of them are affected by their contexts, philosophies, governance structures, value systems, and the legal ground rules under which they operate. These are the forces and factors that control their leadership needs. When it comes to community or social responsibility, it is said that the Merck Company Foundation has distributed over $480 million to educational and non-profit organizations since it was founded in 1957. This company is also today involved in bringing out various medical publications as it publishes the "Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy" that is considered as the world's best-selling medical textbook, and the "Merck Index" which is a collection of information about chemical compounds.

Over the years there are several challenges that the company has faced. For instance, Attorney General Coakley's Office filed a settlement with drug manufacturer Merck and Company, Inc. (Merck) resolving concerns about the company's misleading advertising and promotion of the "Cox-2" inhibitor drug Vioxx. This drug is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug used to treat arthritis. The complaint, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, claims that Merck failed to reveal to consumers that Vioxx posed an increased risk of heart attack.

The consent judgment, also filed in Suffolk Superior Court prohibited Merck from further mislead consumers in advertising for any Merck product and requires full disclosure of all known risks of Merck drugs. The complaint asserts that Merck began marketing Vioxx in May 1999 with an aggressive and deceptive promotional campaign directed at both consumers and at health care professionals. However, they hide the fact of high risks of heart problems. When promoting Vioxx directly to patients of arthritis as well as the health care professionals, Merck allegedly misrepresented the cardiovascular side effect.

As a result the company's ethics were questioned and subsequently the drug was taken off from the market. In September 2004, Merck admitted that Vioxx caused serious cardiovascular events and withdrew the drug from the market. Further, when the multistate group investigated this case in December 2005, it exposed that in addition to the deceptive and misleading adverti