Merck & Co.

Description

Merck & Co Inc is a global healthcare company that provides various pharmaceutical products and health solutions.

The company operates and provides its services through different segments:
• Animal Health
• Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical segment

The company is engaged in developing, marketing, and producing pharmaceutical products, medicines, vaccines, etc. Merck & Co produces various vaccines for children and adults, such as vaccines for measles, rubella, mumps, varicella, pneumonia, etc. In addition, they also manufacture Gardasil vaccine for HPV.

Animal Health Segment

The segment is comprised of all the activities related to animal healthcare. The healthcare company deals with the discovery, development, and production of animal health and veterinary products, such as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, etc., to treat and prevent diseases in livestock and companion animal species through the segment.

The company earlier had two other business segments: the healthcare services segment and the alliances segment. The healthcare services segment provided solutions and services to improve patients' care, including clinical services and health analytics. The alliances segment was concluded in 2018, while the healthcare services segment was divested in 2020.

Merck & Co is primarily engaged in the discovery, development, and manufacture of prescription medicines, vaccines for a wide range of diseases, including hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, HIV, Ebola, etc., and their treatments.

The company's product portfolio includes:

• Keytruda: A cancer drug
• Januvia and Janumet: For diabetes
• ProQuad: A pediatric combination vaccine
• M-M-R: Vaccine for active immunization to prevent measles, mumps, and rubella in children.
• Varivax: Vaccine to prevent chickenpox

Founder George Merck established the company on January 1, 1891, in the United States. The 23-year-old entrepreneur founded the healthcare company to deliver fine chemicals in New York and surrounding areas.

The healthcare company also publishes Merck Manual, a medical reference book series containing several topics, symptoms and treatment texts in all fields of medicine.

The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy is reportedly one of the best-selling medical journals globally, the company claims.

The pharmaceutical company operates under the trade name Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) outside the United States and Canada.

The stocks trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 'MRK'.

It is also among several market indexes, including S&P 500, DJIA and S&P 100 components.

The company was reportedly among the Best Employers for New Grads, Forbes Global 2000 and America's Best Employers list for 2021.