The business of biomedical research is mostly about failure. Few projects we commission will ultimately result in success. But every study we do contributes to the body of knowledge that brings science and society closer to a solution.
Kenneth Frazier
While a fundamental responsibility of business leaders is to create value for shareholders, I think businesses also exist to deliver value to society.
My legacy is that Merck continues to do what Merck has always done, which is to make singular impact on human health and animal health around the world. It's that simple.
Affordability is critical so that patients have access to medicines. At the same time, it's also important that we have the kind of incentives that allow us to do the kinds of studies that we need to do to go after these diseases like Alzheimer's.
I do worry that as we try to fix this long-term debt and deficit situation that we don't destroy the market incentives for biomedical research. What I fear is the government using its considerable clout to say, 'Here's the price we're setting for your medicines.'
My father was born in the year 1900 in South Carolina, and he grew up at a time where being an African-American child in the American South was to be deprived of access to anything close to a reasonable education. He only had three years of formal education, but he was self-taught. He read two newspapers a day.
Most of my diversity conversations are had with the majority population, because frankly, those people are the people who have the most influence over everybody's career.
You either innovate or you become defunct.
Institutions are what allow us to have continuity in civilizations.
I support tax revenue increases, including the top 2 percent, but only if accompanied by responsible spending limits. The key is balance.
In my house, education was the paramount value. And if you grew up in a neighborhood like mine, you were forced to decide early on what you stood for in life, because there were a lot of peer pressures that could take you the wrong way.
The way we have looked at pricing at Merck is we've always said we want to be responsible, which means we want to optimize profitability and patient access.
If I had not been coached well about how to deal with a culture and a set of values that were foreign to my own, I would not have been able to be successful.
My grandfather on my paternal side, Richard Frazier, was born in the late 1850s and, therefore, was born into slavery but was a sharecropper in South Carolina for his entire life.
My father, to me, was 10 feet tall.
There's no way we can invent enough stuff for a company of Merck's size.
We value R&D as a company. It's who we are.
I've always admired lawyers who use their power to effect social change, and Thurgood Marshall was always a childhood hero of mine.
I'm the last senior executive who was hired by Roy Vagelos. It's an honor, but it also imposes upon me an obligation not only to think about his legacy but also about this company's legacy.
I think words have consequences, and I think actions have consequences.
I had a fantastic upbringing by two parents who cared deeply about their children but, more importantly, believed that anything was possible for their children and, in some ways, almost brainwashed us to be successful.
I don't believe it's appropriate for me or any other CEO to wade into every political dispute. That's not what we're here for.
Your job as a trial attorney is to try to convey to the jury the essence of the people you represent.
I think every company has its own unique approach to creating shareholder value.
America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal.
We're an American company; we're proud of being an American company.
I think that size is not the key to innovation. Scale doesn't confirm an innovation advantage.
I am a person who does not subscribe to the hero-CEO school of thought.
I fell in love with the science at Merck.
My job is to make sure that 10 and 15 years from now, people aren't going to say, 'Oh, do you remember Merck?'
I'm a big believer in institutions.
One of the strongest forms of rhetoric in our society is the rhetoric of blame.
We need to work together to fairly assess and improve the long-term economic and health value - and affordability - of all components of the healthcare system, including hospitalizations, drugs, devices, and other interventions, to optimize our health investment decisions.
Biopharmaceutical research and development efforts have achieved dramatic improvements in global health and longevity, and we are committed to continuing our quest.
In a successful health system, the proportion of per-capita health dollars used for home care, outpatient primary care, and preventive services should actually increase, not decrease, relative to those for acute hospital care.
Competition in our health system is a powerful force of cost-containment.
I would like people to say that Merck continues to be a company that makes a difference in the world.
I think if you look at Merck's history, I think Merck has a reputation for having been a reasonable company when it comes to pricing, sort of a leader in that respect.
