We recently conducted an assessment of our stakeholder engagement in relation to corporate responsibility matters and determined that there was room for improvement. To address this situation and improve the quality and consistency of our engagement, we have developed a new model for the Office of Corporate Responsibility (OCR). The first element of this model focuses on identifying better who our stakeholders are and how we can bring their perspectives into the OCR to help us ensure our business responds to their needs, to inform our views, policies and practices, and to enter into productive partnerships and collaborations. Finally, we have also begun to think about measuring the impact of our stakeholder engagement and what indicators would be meaningful. As we progress down this new path, we look forward to our stakeholders' perspectives and feedback.

Many and diverse stakeholders

Below are some of our major stakeholders and a brief summary of how we aim to work with them to address their expectations of us as a responsible corporate citizen.

Payors

We are aware of payors' concerns over rising health care costs and limited budgets, and of the debates on how to make medicines and vaccines more affordable and accessible. We work with payors worldwide to ensure they understand that the prices of our products reflect the value of those products and we also develop programs with payors to ensure our products can reach the people who need them most. For more information on our access initiatives, please click here.

Governments, multilateral organizations and regulators

We are committed to conducting our business according to the letter and spirit of the law and regulations as well as the various standards of business practice that we endorse. When laws or regulations do not exist or are inadequate, we have created our own standards and use these to guide our practices. We work with policy makers, legislators, multilateral organizations and governments worldwide to ensure that policy and regulatory environments globally, nationally and locally foster patient access to medicines and vaccines, and that they are conducive to ethical business practices, science and innovation. For more information on our public policy and advocacy positions, please click here.

Shareholders

We aim to create shareholder value by identifying opportunities to meet customer needs, and by managing our business responsibly to achieve superior financial results. To this end, we measure and report our performance—on financial and other parameters—honestly and accurately, and we work hard to protect and retain our assets—including our intellectual property rights, our resources, our top employees, and our reputation. In 2008, Merck's investor relations team was named most shareholder-friendly in the pharmaceutical sector by Institutional Investor magazine, a direct result of our efforts to foster dialogue and interaction with our shareholders. For information related to investing in Merck, please click here.

Investors committed to sustainable investing

A growing number of investors are considering companies' social responsibility in their investment decisions. Merck seeks to engage with these investors in open and transparent dialogue. As of June 2009, Merck is currently listed on the FTSE4Good Index, KLD Global Sustainability Index the Access to Medicines Index and Corporate Responsibility Officer Magazaine's 10^th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List.^®

Issue experts in academe, nongovernmental organizations and multilateral organizations

We work hard to identify the best organizations and individuals to work with, both to address societal challenges and to inform debates on pressing issues. Merck has three decades of experience in developing partnerships, especially those focused on improving global health, but also in such areas as health and science education, environmental protection and ethical business practices. Such partnerships are driving the evolution of private sector involvement in meeting societal challenges. Our partnerships on health include a variety of ventures, with diverse arrangements and participants, various legal statuses and modes of governance and management, assorted priorities and contributions by participants, and many different impacts. They range from small collaborations focused on distributing one product to larger entities fighting a disease. Our objectives for a health partnership might include developing a product, distributing a donated or subsidized product, or strengthening health services. For more information on our public/private partnerships, please click here.

Communities where Merck operates

We strive to make a positive contribution to the communities where we work and on which we depend, through responsible and safe operations that contribute economically and socially through our philanthropy. For more information on our contributions to communities, please click here.

Environmental stakeholders

We work hard to minimize the environmental impacts of our operations and products, and to promote responsible environmental practices both within the Company, by our partners and throughout our supply chain. For more information on our environmental performance, please click here.

Employees

We want our workplaces to be productive, safe and professional so that our employees all can offer their best. To this end, we work hard to foster positive working environments supported by teamwork, embracing diversity and inclusion, and encouraging professional development. For more information on Merck's employee relations, please click here.

Suppliers and business partners

We seek out the best suppliers and partners with whom to research, develop, produce and distribute our medicines and vaccines and perform commercial services. We strive to engage a diverse supply base and foster reasonable approaches on the part of our suppliers with respect to labor, employment, health and safety, ethics, diversity and protection of the environment throughout our supply chain, and we are committed to working with our partners to ensure that our policies on corporate responsibility have broader impact. For more information on Merck's approach to supply chain management, please click here.

Trade and industry associations

Merck engages with stakeholders through numerous organizations in which we are members. Within these groups, we aim to inform related debates in ways that are constructive and that ultimately foster improved access to medicines and vaccines globally. For a list of memberships, please click here.

A Continuum of Engagement

When we engage with our stakeholders, we seek open dialogue to understand and resolve issues and to help align our business practices with emerging opportunities and societal expectations so that we can continue to create shareholder and societal value in a sustainable manner. Within the engagement continuum, we see various levels of intensity, but all require time and resources. As with any relationship, a lack of commitment leads to distrust which can be damaging and difficult to repair. But by engaging with our stakeholders, taking responsible actions and maintaining our commitments, we can build trust and support. And, over time, this can reduce financial and other enterprise risks and costs. Therefore, when we decide to engage, we do not do so lightly and we see the relationship as long-term. The various levels of engagement we consider include:

• Partnering and multi-stakeholder networks: We believe that sustainable solutions to societal challenges such as disease, lack of education, environmental problems and corruption must come from approaches that leverage the expertise of all stakeholders. Such creative engagement can produce significant benefits for both companies and society. With numerous partners, Merck has pioneered far-reaching programs, the results of which demonstrate that working together can achieve more than individual stakeholders alone—and can truly make a sustainable difference. For more information on Merck's public/private partnerships, please click here.
• Supporting: In cases where multi-stakeholder partnerships are not feasible or appropriate, Merck provides financial and technical support to appropriate stakeholders. 
• Dialogue and advocacy: During the course of our work, we actively engage in dialogue with numerous stakeholders with varying perspectives and opinions.  Our engagement here aims to inform related debates constructively and to foster progress toward solutions that benefit society more broadly. For more information on our public policy and advocacy positions, please click here.

  Principles for Stakeholder Engagement

  In our various interactions with key stakeholders, we observe the following principles:

• Participation: We encourage broad involvement and welcome the perspectives of diverse parties with constructive contributions.
• Transparency: We strive to consider a broad range of issues and be clear how we decide which issues require our greatest attention.  We also aim to be candid about our objectives and assumptions.  And we try to provide access to relevant knowledge and information, within proprietary limits.
• Focus: We want to focus on the issues that are most relevant and of greatest importance in a particular timeframe.
• Learning: In our engagements and experiences with various stakeholders, we strive to learn and make the most of the lessons, even when experiences may not always appear positive.  We work hard to apply the lessons in ways that result in mutually beneficial solutions.
• Results: We encourage performance measurement to assess progress and identify obstacles that need to be addressed.  This also serves to remind all partners that we are working together for a purpose and that, while our views and methods may differ, our purpose unites us.

  Stakeholder Database

  To ensure we manage our stakeholder engagement process effectively and avoid unnecessary duplication, we have begun to consolidate general information about our engagements in a database related to our corporate responsibility performance.  We review our progress on specific parameters annually and revise our focus of work as new needs and issues arise.

  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.