What happened to the once great Merck

Merck really does have a great and proud history.

Merck developed the first mumps vaccine, developed thiazides and the first statin. Published the Merck Manual. Merck was named company of the year several times and once considered the best organization to work for.

Today it's a mere shell of that former greatness. Self absorbed egotis such and Ken Frazier will surely lay all the blame on previous leadership. He would insist that he is forced to work with the train wreck he inherited and deflect any responsibility. There is a thread of truth there but upon accepting a position of leadership Mr Frazier then needs to accept accountability and responsibility for the mess today. He has made the choice to systematically dismantle the infrastructure of this company to slash expenses and sacrifice long term sustainability for short term profit. If our R&D group is incapable of developing new products then we could purchase some and use our resources to promote and generate revenue. I guess Mr. Frazier considers that to much of a risk and slash and burn Sherman style as the more prudent course of action.

I'm interested in the boards thoughts??

What happened in your view and solutions------

 

Kenny isn't doing anything different than all the other Big Pharma CEOs.
People consider Merck the pinnicale of Pharma alongside Pfizer, Novartis,Roche,JNJ etc.

 

Nothing in life stays the same, so you gotta roll with the punches sonny.

 

Sears was once the number one retailer, GM was the number one car manufacturer, IBM was the definition of high-tech and we used newspapers and post office to stay in touch. Things change, Merck is going the way of Blockbuster and Radioshack. Last one out, turn off the lights.

 

About that Schering-Plough merger, Merck wouldn't have Keytruda without it!

 

This back and forth is tiring, half the pc reps male and female will be let go in a few weeks. By the end of 2018 all pc reps gone, you need to spend your time on your next phase of life. #liferclingershangingon
#mercksucksazzz

 

to the poster who is trying to say it is women who brought Merck down...go wash your overalls and count your teeth. Newer, younger companies who are more innovative and agile have come into the market. (Just like reps...). It was a great company with an awesome legacy, but the glory days are behind them. Newer biotech’s are approaching business in a different way and Merck is still doing things the way they have always been done. Simple as that.

 

The beginning of the end started when Merck instituted the MBA program (only competitive Ivy league business school grads need apply!) and allowed them to make multi-million dollar decisions without the requisite depth and breath of experience. Throw in an academic (Peter Kim, PhD , not MD) to run to the research labs and you had a recipe for disaster.

 

MOTHER MERCK TREATS US WELL !

 

Here's a scoop for you. When women were first hired as sales reps, it wrecked the boys club of so-called "detail men." These jokers had no interest in science, disease processes or pharmacology. Their "skill" was telling dirty jokes, nothing more. The Boys of MRK merely road the tidal wave of blockbuster products for arthritis, hypertension, depression, vaccines, infectious disease, glaucoma, Parkinson's, etc.

Support your spineless "Yes, but" claims with evidence or shut your pie hole.
Your chronology alone shows how clueless you are.

 

The Industry is completely broken. In what Industry does your manager tell you that your strong relationships are hurting your sales? In what Industry actually makes you lie day to day in your activities? In what Industry actually wants you to be confrontational w/ clients?

Pharma isn’t even any good for college grads anymore because all it does is create bad habits and what not to do in a real job.

 

Bet Kenny has a 50 pound free range turkey served up on a gold platter at his country estate. Probably uses the company jet/copter to fly in guests.
The rest of us will drown ourselves in cheap wine waiting for our fated calls to come. Good luck everyone, try to forget this mess for a few days. I suspect things will be very quiet next week.

 

Good for him. One of the only ones to experience that "privilege". Ungrateful!!!

 

It is lucky that the profit margins are so ridiculous in pharma, because any other industry would have gone
belly up being this broken...

 

Go back 20-25 years. Vagelos was not without his share of mistakes but he had Mother Merck perking along quite nicely under his leadership. After his exit, the road to hell began for this formerly great company and panic set in. Executive management all the way down to lower level management suffered with the loss top employees to retirement or better opportunities. That left Merck with a core team of rather incompetent managers who often turned to bullying employees to mask their own weakness. Their decision in the mid to late 90's to transform Merck into a Pfizer like (lite) marketing organization after Lipitor captured the statin franchise from Merck created the environment for the Vioxx debacle. That got Kenny the exposure needed to become CEO of a formerly great company, once recognized as the "most admired" corporation across all industry segments for 7 consecutive years. Those were some truly fantastic years to be an employee at Merck. Post Vagelos Merck became a real hell hole.

 

What happened? Merck kept hiring type A, narcissistic confrol freaks with no sales experience like Thomas L. Lyon III in management positions and then they kept bringing in like minded losers like themselves. The Vaccine Division doesn't even sell anymore thanks to Lyon. It's all about kissing up to him, constantly creating unrealistic, detailed business plans on each customer that are made up and conducting special projects to one up each other. The likes of Lyon have made the sales culture toxic with reps having a crabs in a barrel mentality of backstabbing each other.

 

On another subject - any thoughts on the new company care lineup?