Supplier Diversity Performance Data Summary 2005-2008 for U.S. and Puerto Rico

	2008	2007	2006	2005
Percentage of spending on diverse suppliers	14	12	8	5
Number of external supplier events supported	30	29	28	13
Percentage of Merck procurement employees who have been trained in supplier diversity	100	100	100	0

Since 2005, Merck has more than doubled its purchases from minority-, women- and veteran-owned suppliers in the United States and Puerto Rico. In  2005, Merck spent 5 percent of our total U.S. and Puerto Rico procurement dollars with minority-, women- and veteran-owned firms. In 2006, it increased to 8 percent and by 2007 it was 12 percent. We reached 14 percent in 2008.

In 2005, Merck set a five-year goal to reach 10 percent by 2010. Merck met this goal in 2007. Our new goal is to reach 17 percent of all U.S. and Puerto Rico spend by the end of 2010.

Merck received the Corporation of the Year Award from the Minority Supplier Development Council of Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Delaware in December 2008. This award recognizes the top corporation in the region that demonstrates the highest commitment to minority-owned businesses.

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.