Our scientists are dedicated to advancing research for potential treatment options for people diagnosed with prostate cancer
September 4, 2024
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It’s estimated that nearly 1.5 million people assigned male at birth were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2022 worldwide.
But these patients aren’t just a statistic or a number. They’re our partners, our parents, our children, our siblings and our friends. They’re our loved ones, fighting for better outcomes and a chance for the future. And that’s who we’re fighting for, too.
“Globally, someone is diagnosed with prostate cancer nearly every minute. That’s why we’re working with urgency to advance research and provide potential treatment options for patients living with this disease.”
Dr. Kentaro Imai, distinguished scientist, oncology, prostate clinical research
The impact of prostate cancer on patients
Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in patients assigned male at birth worldwide. The average age at diagnosis is 66 years old. Prostate cancers is more likely to develop among those with African ancestry or a family history of the disease.
Prostate cancer can be genetic in other ways, too. Several inherited genetic mutations — such as those of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes — can increase prostate cancer risk. These types of genetic mutations, among others, can be identified through testing your tumor (also known as biomarker testing).
For those patients who are diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer, the prognosis is promising, with a five-year survival rate of nearly 100%. However, for patients with prostate cancer at an advanced stage, the outcomes can be dramatically different, and the five-year survival rate remains low.
“As with many cancers, patients with prostate cancer have the greatest chance of survival when their disease is detected early,” said Dr. Imai. “The prognosis for prostate cancer worsens as it spreads to other areas of the body, given that there are limited treatment options at that stage. It’s critical that we push forward to identify new options for these patients.”
Our commitment to prostate cancer research
Our science, coupled with new insights into the disease, continues to guide us as we pursue clinical advancements in prostate cancer.
"Our scientists are working diligently each and every day in an effort to discover new solutions for patients with prostate cancer."
— Dr. Kentaro Imai
Distinguished scientist, oncology, prostate clinical research
Since the next breakthrough can come from anywhere or anyone, we regularly collaborate across the entire prostate cancer community, working with health care providers, other companies, academia and advocates to gain a deeper understanding and make progress for patients with prostate cancer.
“The fight against prostate cancer is constantly evolving, and therefore our approach to the disease must evolve, as well,” said Dr. Imai. “We’re committed to pushing boundaries in pursuit of breakthrough advances that have the potential to change the lives of patients living with prostate cancer.”
Understanding lung cancer: 5 essential things to know as a patient or caregiver
What to know about one of the most common types of cancer
August 21, 2024
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Lung cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide. In 2022, it was estimated that more than 2.4 million people globally were diagnosed with lung cancer.
Lung cancer is also the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Nearly one-in-five (19%) cancer-related deaths were estimated to result from the disease worldwide in 2022.
Despite how common lung cancer is and its high mortality rates, there are still many misconceptions about the disease. Having accurate information is a critical step in the fight against lung cancer.
Our company is working for these patients and their families by advancing research and fostering greater awareness and understanding of the disease.
Here are five facts about lung cancer that we think patients or caregivers need to know.
01.
Every person with lung cancer deserves compassion and support.
People with lung cancer can face social stigma because they may have smoked. But the truth is, there’s no room for blame. People with lung cancer are worthy of all the compassion and support their families, health care teams and the wider cancer community can provide to help them stand against this disease.
02.
It takes a village to navigate life with lung cancer.
When coping with a lung cancer diagnosis, it’s important to build a circle of support that includes the oncologist, health care teams, family and friends.
Connecting with others can provide a sense of support and comfort to help patients through everything that goes into managing this disease.
03.
There’s no one type of person who develops lung cancer.
Lung cancer strikes both men and women. While it is mostly diagnosed in older people, younger people can develop the disease. In fact, in 2022, more than 312,000 cases of lung cancer were estimated to be diagnosed worldwide among people 54 and younger.
04.
There are multiple risk factors for lung cancer, including some outside our control.
Smoking is the greatest risk factor for developing lung cancer, but there are others as well, including having a family history of the disease and exposure to certain environmental substances. Worldwide, it is estimated that 10-25% of patients with lung cancer have never smoked with even higher proportions based on ethnicity and geographic region.
Environmental risks include:
Exposure to radon gas.
Exposure to occupational carcinogens, such as asbestos.
Exposure to outdoor air pollution, such as second-hand smoke, arsenic, chromium and nickel.
05.
Scientific advances are helping to make an impact in treating lung cancer.
Over the last 20 years, significant strides have been made to improve patient outcomes in the treatment of lung cancer. Key advancements include the development of targeted therapies, the incorporation of biomarker testing into standard practice and the progress of research that may offer promising breakthroughs for patients with difficult-to-treat tumor types.
Letter from our chairman and chief executive officer, Rob Davis
August 16, 2024
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Dear Stakeholders,
For more than a century, we’ve been devoted to innovative scientific discovery, delivering medicines and vaccines to address critical health needs, optimizing the efficiency of our supply chain, increasing diversity in clinical trials, evolving our Merck Manual for medical reference and so much more. Importantly, everything we do is inspired by our purpose — to save and improve the lives of people and animals around the world. By harnessing leading-edge science, we’ve tackled some of the world’s biggest health challenges for generations, and we remain committed to expanding access to life-changing medicines, vaccines and technologies for many more decades to come. Operating our business responsibly and sustainably is at the core of our values and foundational to our ways of working and business operations.
To help propel our purpose, we continue to prioritize our ambitious sustainability goals, which span four key focus areas: 1) Access to Health; 2) Employees; 3) Environmental Sustainability and 4) Ethics & Values.
Over the last year, our concerted focus on innovation, collaboration and delivering significant and sustained stakeholder value has driven remarkable progress and impactful outcomes. To these ends, I’m proud to share the following key accomplishments:
Expanding and enabling access to health
Enabling access to health underpins every action we take and every decision we make. Across our enterprise, we collaborate with global partners and stakeholders to advance our scientific discoveries, expand and enable access to our medicines and vaccines, and implement initiatives that drive health equity. In 2023, we reached more than 550 million people with our medicines and vaccines through commercial channels, clinical trials, voluntary licensing and product donations. These critical efforts include our MECTIZAN® Donation Program, the longest-running disease-specific drug donation effort of its kind, which aims to combat river blindness and lymphatic filariasis and reached approximately 385 million people last year.
In 2023, we also expanded on our 2021 access to health ambition, and now have a new goal to enable 350 million more people to access our medicines and vaccines by 2025. In 2023 alone, our efforts enabled access for 240 million people. Our products were delivered to nearly 80% of countries globally. And through our social investments, including partnerships to advance access to health and other impact initiatives, we reached more than 54 million people in low- and middle-income countries and populations underserved by health care in high-income countries, surpassing our goal of reaching more than 50 million people by 2025.
Developing and rewarding an inclusive and healthy workforce
We believe the best path to value creation is through our talent, and the variety of backgrounds and ideas they bring are central to the success of our company. Diversity and inclusion is a business imperative. It improves our understanding of our customers, promotes inclusion in our clinical trials and inspires the innovation that drives our business. We remain committed to actively cultivating a talented and inclusive workforce that best represents—and can thus best serve—our customers, health care providers and patients.
In 2023, we defined and introduced 15 new enterprise leadership skills, designed to further advance our culture, power organizational and individual performance, and drive value for our stakeholders and communities.
Embodying and prioritizing environmental stewardship
We know the global health of people and animals is inextricably linked to the health of the planet. This is why we are committed to playing an active role in mitigating the impacts of climate change. Notably, in 2024, we committed to be net-zero across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, aligned with guidance from the Science Based Targets initiative.
Our environmental sustainability strategy is designed to achieve our objectives by focusing on three critical areas: operational efficiency, designing new products to minimize environmental impact and reducing the impacts in our upstream and downstream value chain. And we have been recognized with six consecutive Green Chemistry Challenge Awards—nine overall—as a result of our ongoing efforts to minimize the footprint of our products. The awards are sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Chemistry Society and recognize new and innovative environmentally conscious chemistry technologies.
Holding ourselves to the highest standards
We operate responsibly every day in every way, and we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards of ethics and values. Our code of conduct is our compass, ensuring we maintain our reputation as a trusted, credible and responsible company. It also encourages employees to speak up and report potential concerns to ensure our ethics and values are reflected in our business operations. We maintain full compliance with all privacy and data regulatory requirements related to active incident monitoring, risk/harm analysis and on-time notification of data breaches.
We are also a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and we align our operations with the Ten Principles of the UNGC to improve communities around the globe.
Additionally, we increased our spend with small and diverse Tier 1 and 2 suppliers from $3.2 billion in 2022 to $3.6 billion in 2023, fostering a healthy, equitable and diverse supply chain.
In 2023, we also added sustainability metrics to our Company Scorecard, which directly correlates to our annual incentive plan. The metrics link the compensation for most employees, including executives, to our performance in driving greater access to health care and employee engagement and inclusion. And I’m pleased to report that, in our inaugural year, we achieved all of our goals for these new sustainability metrics on our Company Scorecard.
Sustaining our momentum
I am very proud of our collective progress and the positive impact we’ve made on the lives of people, animals and communities around the world. In 2023, Merck was named one of the Top 100 Most Sustainable U.S. Companies by Barron’s and one of America’s Most JUST Companies by JUST Capital and CNBC. And notably, we ranked No. 1 in the health sector for both recognitions. This year, we were also recognized on TIME’s inaugural list of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies, ranking No. 28 out of 500 companies. These honors are a testament to our unwavering passion and commitment to saving and improving lives globally.
I remain confident that we can do even more to further advance global health and access, drive diversity and inclusivity, protect the environment and operate responsibly. I’m excited and energized by the possibilities of our science-led strategy, the promise that our short- and long-term efforts present, and the positive, sustainable impacts that we can make today and well into the future.
My sincerest thanks for your continued support as we pursue a healthier and brighter future for all.
Our company teamed up with the American Cancer Society to raise awareness on cancer screenings and help support access for everyone
August 15, 2024
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Fear is a powerful emotion, especially when it comes to cancer.
Fear of what a screening test might discover, fear of potential discomfort and fear of the unknown kept Terry Craft from getting a regular cancer screening.
He decided to see a doctor after an intense and painful episode of constipation, an appointment he says he should have had 10 years earlier. Craft was 47 years old when he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.
“My wife actually wanted me to have a colonoscopy when I was in my late 30s because I had a little bout and I said, ‘No, I’m not doing that,’” says Craft.
“I didn’t get screened because I was afraid of it. I just didn’t want to know if there was something that might be serious or life-threatening. It was a fear factor for me.”
Terry Craft Colon cancer survivor
He says his doctors told him his tumor had potentially been growing ever since that experience in his 30s.
“Had I gone for a simple screening 10 years prior I might have, as I say, ‘nipped it in the bud’ and it might have just been a rogue polyp, who knows,” says Craft. “But because I didn’t, I had to go through a lot and it wasn’t just me — when cancer affects one member of a family, it affects everyone.”
“Due to pandemic-related delays in screening for breast, cervical, colorectal and lung cancers, many cancers could be going undiagnosed and untreated and may advance to later stages and be more difficult to treat,” says Laura Makaroff, senior vice president of prevention and early detection at American Cancer Society. “We foresee that those reductions in health care access and cancer screening will result in a short-term drop in cancer diagnoses and a later corresponding increase in late-stage diagnoses and potentially preventable deaths. “
Craft is in remission today, and he makes it a point to tell others just how important cancer screenings are, no matter what the results might be.
“It’s OK to understand what’s going on,” says Craft. “You want to know, don’t hide from it. If you hide from it, the outcome might not be what I experienced. It could be a deadly outcome.”
Early detection matters
Darleen Alston didn’t have health insurance when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019. She says if it wasn’t for the free mammogram that she received through a cancer screening program, it “could have been months” before she knew she had cancer.
“I can say that it [screening] saves lives because it saved mine.”
Darleen Alston Breast cancer survivor
While many people face different kinds of barriers to getting the medical care they need, having access to preventative health screenings shouldn’t be one of them.
“I tell everybody, go get your mammogram. And if you can’t afford it, go to the screening. They’ll do it for free,” says Alston. “You’re not going to lose anything by going. You’re going to lose your life, maybe, if you don’t go.”
Preventative care is for everyone
There are cancer screening resources available to help people who are uninsured or underinsured find low-cost or free cancer screenings.
To help these efforts and improve cancer screening rates, Merck teamed up with the American Cancer Society (ACS) and their Get Screened campaign.
Our company, along with other sponsors, joined ACS in its goal to raise $30 million for a national initiative to help support access to recommended cancer screenings. The initiative includes collaborations with key stakeholders, including state and local health systems, to implement evidence-based screening interventions and public policy solutions that may benefit all.
“It’s important to ensure access for everyone to recommended cancer screenings to reduce screening disparities and unnecessary cancer deaths,” says Makaroff. “During the pandemic, we know that disparities in cancer screenings increased for people with greater social or economic barriers. Through our Get Screened campaign, the American Cancer Society is working to increase regular screening rates for everyone to help save more lives.”
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a leading cause of certain types of cervical cancer and other cancers in men and women
August 15, 2024
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What is human papillomavirus (HPV)?
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the U.S. There are many different types of HPV.
For most people, HPV clears on its own. But for the very few who do not clear the virus, it can cause certain cancers and other diseases in both men and women. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know who will or will not clear the virus.
What cancers and diseases can be caused by HPV?
HPV can cause certain types of:
cervical cancers
anal cancers
vulvar cancers
vaginal cancers
head and neck cancers
genital warts
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 2016 and 2020, tens of thousands of people in the U.S. were diagnosed with certain HPV-related cancers each year.
The impact of HPV-related cancers
Between 2016 and 2020, CDC estimates:
60-70%
of all oropharyngeal cancer (found in the back of the throat, including the base of the tongue and tonsils) may be caused by HPV
~11,900
new HPV-related cervical cancer cases occur in the U.S. each year
“There are steps people can take to be proactive about their health. Men and women should speak with their health care providers to learn more about the link between HPV and certain cancers and diseases.”
— Mel Kohn, M.D., M.P.H., executive director of medical affairs, Merck
The World Health Organization’s movement towards cervical cancer elimination
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women globally. Important steps have been taken to achieve a world where fewer women are affected by cervical cancer, but more needs to be done.
In 2020, the World Health Assembly adopted the global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem.
To help achieve this goal, the WHO provides guidance and tools to support countries in implementing strategies and addressing challenges associated with cervical cancer prevention.
For more information about HPV, certain related cancers and potential preventive measures, men and women should speak with their health care providers.
Merck’s (NYSE: MRK) Q2 2024 results demonstrate strong business momentum and further progress in our diverse pipeline. Our company announced worldwide sales of $16.1 billion, an increase of 7% from Q2 2023.
“Our business is demonstrating strong momentum as we exit the first half of the year,” said Rob Davis, chairman and chief executive officer. “Through excellent scientific, commercial and operational execution, we’re achieving significant milestones for our company and for patients. I am proud of our dedicated teams around the world that are working tirelessly to advance our deep pipeline as we continue delivering innovation that solves unmet medical needs.”
Merck anticipates full-year 2024 worldwide sales to be between $63.4 billion and $64.4 billion.
Our former CEO Dr. Roy Vagelos honored for role in helping China combat hepatitis B
We’re proud of his recognition and our continued commitment to global health
July 16, 2024
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It’s a moment that’s woven into our company’s history, and one that exemplifies our commitment to putting people before profits.
In 1989, when hepatitis B was the largest public health challenge in China, our company shared a manufacturing process to help the Chinese government address this public health need. This cooperation, led by then-CEO Dr. Roy Vagelos, helped millions at a time when they needed it most.
For his role in helping the people of China, Vagelos recently received the first-ever Elimination Champion Legacy Award from the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE), a program of The Task Force for Global Health. Vagelos was honored alongside Professor Zhao Kai, who helped lead China’s participation in the technology transfer.
“Dr. Roy Vagelos and Professor Zhao Kai are fully deserving of the first Legacy Awards as Hepatitis Elimination Champions,” said Dr. John W. Ward, director of the CGHE.
By 2009, China’s vaccination program made possible by this technology transfer prevented over 24 million infections and over 4 million future deaths, according to estimates cited by the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination. Vagelos’ leadership exemplifies our company’s legacy of collaboration and the work we do every day to address some of the world’s most pressing public health challenges.
Here for Good: A steadfast commitment to global health
How one colleague’s upbringing and career journey have motivated her to enable health access around the world
June 10, 2024
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N52GL-nIeDA
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For Priya Agrawal, access to health has been a lifelong concern and a guiding principle in the work she’s done across industries.
As a young girl growing up in central London, Agrawal saw firsthand how inequities in access even within her own extended family could drastically impact health outcomes.
“I watched my father’s side of the family — who lived in London — live with diabetes, but I watched my mother’s side of the family — who lived in North India — die of diabetes,” Agrawal said. “It took me a while to figure out that it was my father’s family’s access to the National Health Service that made the difference.”
That early insight propelled Agrawal into a career as an obstetrician and gynecologist before moving into public health. Now vice president in charge of international health equity and partnerships, Agrawal first joined our company to help launch Merck for Mothers, a global initiative to help create a world where no woman has to die while giving life. From there, she went on to a variety of roles — from lead of our vaccines and contraceptives business in the U.K. to managing director of South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa cluster to global head of HPV vaccines.
Agrawal’s work — and the passion that fuels it — continues, and she has no plans to stop.
“I want to be able to say that I did all I could to ensure more people could both survive and thrive because they had easier access to health.”
How we’re advancing the best internal and external science to progress our pipeline for patients
May 30, 2024
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Drug development is a long and difficult endeavor. It can take more than 10 years to bring a new medicine to market. So how does our company think about developing new medicines and vaccines to help save and improve lives? The answer: through our One Pipeline strategy, where we complement our internal innovation and discovery efforts with the best external science through business development.
“Our One Pipeline strategy enables us to advance breakthrough science, whether it comes from our own labs or from our partners’ labs, and make medicines and vaccines for patients,” said Dr. Dean Li, president, Merck Research Laboratories (MRL). “Every day, we’re pushing scientific boundaries in research. Business development and external partnerships are integral to help drive our internal pipeline and to provide access to assets that are important for our discovery and clinical development groups.”
To achieve that balance, MRL works in lockstep with our business development and licensing (BD&L) team. “I want to emphasize how integrated BD&L is with MRL. This is hand in glove,” said Li.
Business development augments our pipeline
Our BD&L team is committed to securing scientific and commercial collaborations, licensing agreements and acquisitions from discovery to late-stage candidates and new technologies to help build our robust portfolio. We have a legacy of successful collaborations and are among the most active dealmakers in the biopharma industry.
“We match our strong scientific conviction with bold investments in novel, cutting-edge science to advance new options for patients,” said Sunil Patel, senior vice president, head of corporate development and BD&L. “We’re focused on bringing in the best external science to complement our internal efforts to deliver on our purpose and sustain our company for the next 130 years.”
~$50B
Invested towards business development since 2019.
~80
Significant transactions executed annually across technologies, modalities, therapeutic areas and phases of development.
The BD&L team members focused on our pipeline are embedded with scientists across our research network and, in addition to our New Jersey and Pennsylvania sites, they’re strategically located in key epicenters of innovation including Boston, Cambridge, London, South San Francisco, Shanghai and Tokyo. The team searches the globe for cutting-edge science and works alongside our research team to evaluate opportunities built on strong scientific principles, regardless of location or origin.
Creating a sustainable innovation engine
As part of our One Pipeline strategy, we ensure a smooth transition when bringing in external science and leverage our clinical development and manufacturing expertise to advance each program with speed and rigor. This strategy is helping to build and maintain the flow of novel candidates through clinical development to patients, enabling long-term, sustainable growth for our company.
“Strategic business development focused on the best external science remains an important priority for our company. We’ve demonstrated that we can leverage our deep discovery prowess to identify important acquisition targets and then add significant value through our powerful clinical research engine, our regulatory expertise and our commercial scale, which together can serve to accelerate development and enable broad global access to important medical discoveries for patients in need,” said Rob Davis, chairman and chief executive officer.
Pipeline
We’re focused on discovering new medicines and vaccines for today and the future. View our pipeline.
Business development and licensing
We work with many partners, from early-stage science to clinical-stage programs, to deliver life-changing therapies. Learn more.
Innovation
Vaccine inventors, creators and innovators
Dr. Maurice Hilleman was among the pioneering scientists who made strides in vaccine history and the fight against infectious disease
May 8, 2024
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Dr. Maurice Hilleman, who led our department of virus and cell biology from 1957 to 1984.
When were vaccines invented?
The story of modern day vaccines began in 1796 when Dr. Edward Jenner inoculated 9-year-old James Phipps with cowpox as a way to protect him from smallpox. The term ‘vaccine’ is later coined, taken from the Latin word for cow, vacca. Smallpox was the first disease people tried to prevent by intentionally inoculating themselves with infected matter.
Dr. Edward Jenner inoculating 9-year-old James Phipps with cowpox.
Eight decades after Jenner published his findings, Louis Pasteur developed the first live attenuated rabies vaccine. Attenuation is a process that weakens the bacteria or virus in a vaccine so it’s less likely to cause disease, while still triggering an immune response similar to the natural infection. During the mid- to late-20th century, advances in basic and clinical research made it possible for scientists to develop vaccines to help protect against both bacterial and viral diseases.
Dr. Maurice Hilleman’s contribution to vaccine development
The names Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin have become synonymous with their inventions and developments around the polio vaccine, and the giant strides they made in the fight against viral diseases. Although these are some of the most famous names in vaccine research, Merck has a legacy of vaccine pioneers, too. Dr. Maurice Hilleman, who led Merck’s department of virus and cell biology from 1957 to 1984, also belonged to that distinguished group. Credited with helping to develop more than 40 experimental and licensed human and animal vaccines, Hilleman’s passionate commitment continues to inspire scientists in medical research laboratories to this day.
Hilleman was born and raised on a farm in Montana. It was a hard life, but a farm background was a great foundation for his later work.
“When you’re brought up on a farm, you have a lot of general knowledge,” he said. After graduating from the University of Chicago with a doctorate in microbiology and chemistry, Hilleman chose to work at a pharmaceutical company instead of academia.
Despite his many accomplishments, including helping to develop more than 40 human and animal vaccines, Hilleman’s name is virtually unknown by the general public and press. Yet his impact on public health is undeniable.
“His commitment was to make something useful and convert it to clinical use. Maurice’s genius was in developing vaccines, reliably reproducing them, and he was in charge of all pharmaceutical facets from research to the marketplace.”
Dr. Paul Offit Director of the Vaccine Education Center, professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Hilleman’s biographer
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan awarded Hilleman the National Medal of Science, and in 1997, he was honored with the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award. Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, called Hilleman “one of the true giants of science, medicine and public health in the 20th century.”
Forward-looking statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA
This website of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline candidates that the candidates will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.
The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 and the company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s Internet site (www.sec.gov). No Duty to Update
The information contained in this website was current as of the date presented. The company assumes no duty to update the information to reflect subsequent developments. Consequently, the company will not update the information contained in the website and investors should not rely upon the information as current or accurate after the presentation date.
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