Merck’s Kenneth Frazier, biopharma’s irreplaceable voice, to step down as CEO

Kenneth Frazier is stepping down as the CEO of Merck, leaving a giant hole in the fabric of the pharmaceutical industry.

The decision, announced Thursday, has been telegraphed for more than a year, but is still a landmark moment. Frazier, 66, has done more than oversee the reanimation of one the most fabled U.S. drug makers; in recent years, he’s been the heart of the drug industry — a role perhaps epitomized by his decision in 2017 to resign from a White House advisory panel on manufacturing over President Donald Trump’s failure to denounce violence by white nationalist groups in Charlottesville, Va.