Ensuring Ethical Interactions with Government Officials Worldwide

Merck's standards for governing interactions with government officials include guidelines concerning the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to ensure employees strictly adhere to Company policies and procedures, local laws and U.S. laws when interacting with government officials, their family members and their representatives. The standards state:

"Merck's Ethical Business Practices Policy and these standards prohibit payments, including payments of Company funds or other assets, directly or indirectly, to government officials (including Foreign Officials) or persons acting on their behalf for the purpose of improperly influencing decisions or actions respecting Merck's business… Failure by employees to comply with these standards may have severe internal consequences, up to and including termination from the Company, as well as external consequences, including possible criminal prosecution and/or significant fines."

As part of Merck's global ethics and compliance training, in 2008, we began rolling out a new e-learning course on anti-corruption and bribery designed to help employees understand our corporate policy on ethical business practices and compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

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.