Corporate Social Responsibility by Merck Pharmaceuticals

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a significant topic in the business world today. Lord Holme and Richard Watts, writers of Making Good Business Sense, say: "Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large." Many corporations that exist today do not practice this ideology. Corporations like NIKE and Wal-Mart have been known to exploit laborers. I personally believe any corporation should be looking to make a profit which benefits its corporation while bettering its world at the same time.

Merck Pharmaceuticals is, in my opinion, one of the best in practicing CSR since its foundation 100 years ago. Ethicsworld.org even recognizes it as one of the best companies that practices CSR in the world. Mercks mission statement is:

Merck & Co., Inc. is a global research-driven pharmaceutical company dedicated to putting patients first. Established in 1891, Merck discovers, develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs. The company also devotes extensive efforts to increase access to medicines through far-reaching programs that not only donate Merck medicines but help deliver them to the people who need them. Merck also publishes unbiased health information as a not-for-profit service.

Merck’s best example of CSR began in 1987 when it created the drug MECTIZAN (ivermectin). This drug treats onchocerciasis aka “River Blindness” which mainly occurs in Africa and Yemen. Over 122 million were affected by this epidemic. Merck created the MECTIZAN Donation Program which distributes this drug for free to anyone infected. According to merck.com, “An estimated 300 million Africans are at risk, and another 40 million are infected by this disease. Currently, more than 50 million treatments of MECTIZAN are approved each year for lymphatic filariasis through Merck's work.” The program has existed for over 20 years. See the video below for more information.



Merck has made a long-term commitment to donate as much of this medicine as necessary to prevent and treat river blindness in affected geographic areas. The company wishes to eliminate diseases as public health problems. The company's success has brought it good press and relations to the world and is even praised by many public figures such as former President Jimmy Carter:

"I think Merck has set a standard of the highest possible quality. [The MECTIZAN Donation Program has] been one of the most remarkable and exciting and inspiring partnerships that I have ever witnessed."

Merck is also very diverse in the area of CSR and not only has helped out with medicine, but also with construction and education. Ethicsworld.org highlights Merck’s investment in the development of an ethics center in Dubai. It helped pave the way to the Dubai Ethics Resource Centre (DERC) and it has been affiliated, since 2005, with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce. According to Ken Stier of policyinnovations.org, “Thanks to Merck, Companies are becoming more familiar with the term 'corporate responsibility' and it recognizes the need to be doing the right things in this rapidly developing, highly competitive international marketplace [and] yet its actions, if not the words, prove that it remains unconvinced or unclear of the business case for corporate responsibility and the benefits of successful CR management could bring to it in terms of mitigating risk and identifying opportunities".

I believe every organization should practice CSR because we are living in a world of limited resources and we need to do whatever we can to help our world society. What do you guys think?

More references on CSR

http://wistechnology.com/articles/3969/

http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/16/leadership-philanthropy-charity-lead-citizen-cx_ba_1128directorship.html