Can Merck Ever Fully Recover?

The Merck Manuals are highly sought after everywhere in the worlds of medicine and the veterinary sciences. They are symbols of the pinnacle which Merck had reached when the current Millennium dawned. All stock market and other stake holders were in awe of this company which almost had the sheen of the American nation as such! Merck’s role in third world and public health issues can never be downgraded, no matter how uncertain its future may now appear to be.

The pioneering spirit at Whitehouse Station where Merck is headquartered, took a new direction when it began to run expensive advertising campaigns for some of its new prescription products. This departure was stunning for both the stock market and for regulators, because such large billboards as Merck began to use for Vioxx had rarely been used for even OTC products. There were whispers that the giant had begin covert moves to apply pressure on physicians through patients for prescriptions, but no one was willing to bell the cat!

Adverse incidents in modern medicine are not unheard of, so stray cases of side-effects from the use of Vioxx should not have caused any unusual stir in medical circles. But here was a Super Brand, and attorneys and the public descended on the company with an ongoing deluge of litigation! The stock market might not have made much of this had the top management team remained in place and asserted itself. But heads rolled, and a Production Manager took over the reigns of this scientific monolith!

Top stock market players now shy away and watch fluctuating fortunes in the courts with trepidation. Nevertheless, Merck’s R&D infrastructure is intact. There is plenty of scope for business expansion in large markets which have come under the WTO patent protection umbrella only of late. Already women are clamoring for higher financial support for a new vaccine against some cervical cancers. Merck has both the momentum and the goodwill to recover full to peak health, if only competent doctors take charge on the management floor!

Perhaps it is best to leave the stock market party, and return when the skies clear up!

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