Hundreds of thousands of patients in the United States receive free medicines through Merck's Patient Assistance Program each year. However, there are still millions of people who do not have access to needed medicines for complex reasons, including lack of access to basic health care services and cultural and economic barriers that often lead to disparities in overall health care access.

One pharmaceutical company alone cannot solve public health problems. Sustainable solutions will come from comprehensive approaches that draw on the expertise of all stakeholders. For this reason, a key element of Merck's access strategy in both the developing and developed world is promoting and participating in public/private partnerships with governments, multilateral organizations, community-based organizations, other corporations and nongovernmental organizations to address specific health challenges beyond those over which Merck has immediate and direct control. In the United States, many of the partnerships we support address chronic diseases that require long-term treatment. 

The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA, and Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ, USA, are now one company. We have combined our global operations under the name Merck & Co., Inc. We are working to update our corporate responsibility Web site to reflect our new, combined, global organization.