A Short History of Merck & Co.

Merck & Co. is a very well-known company around the world. Being one of the largest pharmaceutical establishment, it finds out, builds up, make up and sells an extensive range of products to promote human and animal health. However, as profits of the company continue to rise, Merck faces thousands of lawsuits because of some problems concerning their products just like the growing Fosamax issue.  Although there are good news like how Fosamax can help uterine cancer, Merck & Co. is still suffering from several medical blows.

 

Merck & and Co. first saw the light of day way back in 1668 at Darnstadt, Germany when Friedrich Jacob bought a drug store. It took over 2 centuries and several generations before Merck & Co. reached American shores and Merck finally instituted the US branch of the family corporation in New York. At present, the US company has grown larger than its German ancestor with more than 51,000 workers in 120 countries and becoming one of the seven leading pharmaceutical establishments worldwide.

 

Merck also distributes The Merck Manuals, which is a collection of books for medical reference. In the collection is the world’s best-selling medical textbook entitled Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy and a congeries of information about chemical compound known as the Merck Index.

 

Merck & Co.’s annual profits reached more than a billion dollars. On the first quarter of this year alone, Merck said that its profit ($1 billion) has tripled compared from the first quarter sales of 2010.

 

Merck also had a share of bad times. It was in the year 2004 when Vioxx, a drug for arthritis, was discovered to have increased the risks of cardiovascular problems at staggering levels. About 50,000 people have sued Merck claiming that they or their family members have suffered of heart attacks or stroke after taking Vioxx. As a result, Merck proposed to pay almost $5 billion for settlement on the remaining Vioxx lawsuits around November 2007.

 

In the same light, since the previous decade, Fosamax is another drug made by Merck that receives akin discernment due to its association with some bone ailments. Patients tell a myriad of bone illness from the death of a jaw bone also known as osteonecrosis of the jaw to an atypical femur fracture. Fosamax is a bisphosphonate that is the treatment of choice for osteoporosis and Paget’s disease. Currently, many Fosamax cases are still being tried on court. In fact, Merck is currently facing a Fosamax lawsuit.

 

References:

merckgroup.com/en/company/history/history.html

merckmanuals.com/professional/index.html