RATING
Outlook
Positive
SECTOR
Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals, Medicinal Chemical and Botanical Products
Chief Sustainability Officer
T: N/A
E-mail: N/A
Stock Exchange and Ticker
NYSE: MRK
Website
Contact
T: 1-908-740-4000
E.mail: N/A
Listing
N/A
Awards
- CDP “Awareness” C
- CDP “Climate Change” B
- CDP “Supplier Engagement Rating (SER)” A-
- Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies 2021 and 2022 Ranked #2 most admired company in the Pharmaceutical category for both years
- Disability:IN® Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion 2021 and 2022 8th year in a row
- 3BL Media 100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2021 and 2022 Ranked #1 in the Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences category
- Just Capital / Forbes Just 100 List 2021 and 2022 Ranked #1 in the Pharmaceuticals & Biotech category for both years
- Newsweek America’s Most Responsible Companies 2021 and 2022 Ranked #9 in 2022
- Forbes America’s Best Employers 2021 and 2022 8th year in a row
- The Human Rights Campaign Foundation Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality 2021 and 2022 9th year in a row
- Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index 2021 and 2022 3rd year in a row
- Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies 2021 and 2022 Ranked #1 in the Pharmaceuticals category
- Honored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the ACS as a winner of the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards 5th year in a row
- MSD Dunboyne has been awarded accreditation to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP)
Revenue
$48.7B
Market Capitalisation
$218.52B
Employees
68,000
Content source
Merck & Co Sustainability Report
Evaluation of Merck & Co
Merc & Co is on the right path to become a sustainability champion in its industry. Company’s sustainability reporting is taken very seriously, the report is lengthy and externally verified by six different organisations. As proven in Table 1: Targets vs. Progress Reported, Merk is falling behind but with one commitment. Looking at progress towards SDGs the achievements are admirable and applicable to many different categories, not concerning only healthcare. More in depth analysis of SDGs, certificates, rankings and frameworks can be found further in the report, but to say shortly the overall outlook for all of these categories is positive. Merck & Co sourced 41% electricity from renewables in 2021. The percentage of non-hazardous waste sent for recycling increased from 39% to 42% from 2020 to 2021. If Merck were to become sustainability champion, we would focusing on progress towards net-zero and implementation of circular economy. At the moment Merc & Co is not involved in any scandals, but it also hasn’t pursued any honorable initiative. The company is also on a bold decarbonisation path, and it announced that any remaining emissions will be offset with high-quality offsets in 2025. On the other hand, it is debatable what are “high-quality offsets” and it also provides Merck & Co with a “emissions life vest”. We would want to see Merck achieve its targets instead of settling for less. It is admirable that with its products the company is able to help millions of people and we see a huge potential in the social field, if Merck were to become a truly sustainable company.
Sustainability Scorecard
Merck & Co Company Activity
Merck & Co., Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey. It is named after the Merck family, which set up Merck Group in Germany in 1668. It engages in the healthcare industry in the fields of medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. The company sells multiple blockbuster drugs or products including cancer immunotherapy, anti-diabetic medication and vaccines against HPV and chickenpox.
Merck & Co Sustainability Activity - As per company declarations
Merck & Co pledges to create a safe, sustainable, and healthy future for people and communities everywhere, through battling most debilitating diseases, delivering medicines and vaccines to those in need and building more effective health systems. Their sustainable impact revolves mostly around healthcare, but the company is on a great decarbonisation path as well. Merck also emphasises barriers to access and quality care exist in many parts of the world, so they have a role to play in helping to ensure their products are accessible and affordable to those in need.Their ESG approach focuses on saving lives around the world, change the healthcare ecosystem for the better, operate responsibly, and in accordance with materiality assessment directing resources to drive progress in four focus areas: Access to Health, Employees, Environmental Sustainability and Ethics & Values.
Certificate & Labels, Standards and Frameworks
- GRI
- SBTi (in 2021, SBTi verified Scopes 1 & 2 and Scope 3 reduction targets)
- SASB
- UNGC
- Culture of Health for Business (COH4B)
- Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics
- South San Francisco, California, research facility is certified as LEED Gold, WELL Silver and Fitwel® (2 star). In 2021, it became the first facility of its kind to achieve LEED Zero Carbon and LEED Zero Energy certification
- China head office is certified as LEED Gold
- Facility in Durham, North Carolina, is certified as LEED Silver
- Lab in Carlow, Ireland, received LEED Gold and Excellence in Energy Efficiency Design (EXEED) certifications
- Development labs in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are pursuing LEED Silver certification
- Two sites, one in New Jersey and one in Virginia, have received LEED Campus certification
- 11 European sites have adopted energy management programs to manage their energy use and maintain and/or achieve their certification of ISO 50001:2018 for energy management in order to comply with the EU Energy Efficiency Directive audit requirements
- ENERGY STAR Certified Building label for four buildings
- Certified in the Responsible Care Management System® Technical Specification RC101.06
- Some facilities have individually achieved ISO 14001 certification
Merck & Co in the news: Press Reviews and Social Media
After the initial search, I can conclude that most of the articles over the last five years mention Merck & Co when focus on vaccines or other medicines related topics. I have not found any scandalous report, which conveys a positive message about Merck.
Merck has granted a license for its experimental Covid-19 antiviral, molnupiravir, to the U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), allowing 105 low- and middle-income countries to sublicense and make the drug. No royalties for the sales will go to the drug’s developers. Merck has struck deals with manufacturers around the world to take down the prices and vowed to increase its own suppliers as well with the hopes that this action will encourage other industry peers to follow suit.
Merck announced that it would lower prices on several drugs by 10 percent or more, but its rollback affects minor products, but not the blockbusters like the cancer treatment Keytruda or the diabetes drug Januvia. Instead, it said it would reduce by 60% the list price of Zepatier, a hepatitis C drug whose recent sales have dipped so low that, after paying after-the-fact rebates to insurers, the company recorded no sales in the United States for the product in the first quarter of 2018. At the same time it said it would not increase the average net price of its products above the rate of inflation for the rest of 2018.
Highlights from Merck & Co Sustainability Report
Achievements
- $1B inaugural issuance of sustainability bond in December 2021
- Total energy use has been decreasing
- On track with all but one targets
- Many achievements in accordance with SDGs
- Clear and concise reporting, third-party evaluated
- No scandals
- Notable ratings, awards and listings
Weaknesses and Setbacks
One third-party rating (only CDP)
Targets vs Progress Reported
Target | Results reported |
---|---|
Further advance health equity by reaching 30 million people in low- and middle-income countries and in U.S. underserved populations with our social investments, by 2025 | - $1B inaugural issuance of sustainability bond in December 2021 - 15 million people reached through social services - In the first half of 2022, Merck committed donations of more than $93 million in essential products and funds to various organizations, in the region of its operations to ensure that refugees and those who remain inside the country have access to health care |
Reach at least 75% of countries around the world annually with our products | - 79% of countries reached in 2021 with company’s products |
Enable 100 million more people to access our innovative portfolio globally, through access strategies, solutions and partnerships, by 2025 | - Enabled access to innovative portfolio for 66.7 million people |
Enable 100 million more people to access our innovative portfolio globally, through access strategies, solutions and partnerships, by 2025 | - Enabled access to innovative portfolio for 66.7 million people |
Maintain or exceed our current inclusion index score, by 2025 | - On track with inclusion index score and employee engagement index score |
Maintain or exceed our current employee engagement index score, by 2025 | - On track with inclusion index score and employee engagement index score |
Reduce our operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (i.e., Scopes 1 & 2) 46% by 2030, from a 2019 baseline | - 9% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions from 2019 baseline |
Source 100% of our purchased electricity from renewables by 2025 | - 41% of purchased electricity sourced from renewables in 2021 |
Reduce our value chain (Scope 3) GHG emissions by 30% by 2030, from a 2019 baseline | - 9% increase in Scope 3 emissions from 2019 baseline |
Foster a “Speak Up” culture by maintaining or exceeding our current percentage of employees responding favorably to the “Willingness to Report” question in the Pulse survey as an annual average | - Company reports that the goal is on track |
Maintain 100% compliance to regulatory requirements for active incident monitoring, risk/harm analysis and on-time notification of data breaches | - Merck maintains 100% compliance to regulatory requirements for active incident monitoring, risk/harm analysis and on-time notification of data breaches |
Provide rabies vaccines as a part of initiatives to eliminate human deaths from dog-mediated rabies for the years 2022-2025 | - Over the first five years of its existence (2012-2016), the WOAH Rabies Vaccine Bank delivered almost 16 million doses of rabies vaccine, making a significant impact on animal and human health |
By 2025, maintain global water use at or below 2015 levels | - Approximately 14% of used water is obtained from high or extremely high water risk regions - 3.6 million m3 below 2015 levels (16% reduction) |
By 2025, no more than 20% of global operational waste will be sent to landfills and incinerators (without energy recovery) | - In 2021 Merc produced 82,000MT waste, of which 28% was recycled, 26% of energy was recovered, 7% was composted, 2,5% reused. The rest was either landfilled or incinerated without recovering the energy |
By 2025, at least 50% of sites will send zero waste to landfills | - In 2021, 33% of operational waste was sent to landfill and incinerators (without energy recovery) and 52% of sites sent zero waste to landfill |