The business of biomedical research is mostly about failure. Few projects we commission will ultimately result in success. But every study we do contributes to the body of knowledge that brings science and society closer to a solution.
While a fundamental responsibility of business leaders is to create value for shareholders, I think businesses also exist to deliver value to society.
Most of my diversity conversations are had with the majority population, because frankly, those people are the people who have the most influence over everybody's career.
In my house, education was the paramount value. And if you grew up in a neighborhood like mine, you were forced to decide early on what you stood for in life, because there were a lot of peer pressures that could take you the wrong way.
My legacy is that Merck continues to do what Merck has always done, which is to make singular impact on human health and animal health around the world. It's that simple.
Institutions are what allow us to have continuity in civilizations.
My grandfather on my paternal side, Richard Frazier, was born in the late 1850s and, therefore, was born into slavery but was a sharecropper in South Carolina for his entire life.
Affordability is critical so that patients have access to medicines. At the same time, it's also important that we have the kind of incentives that allow us to do the kinds of studies that we need to do to go after these diseases like Alzheimer's.
I support tax revenue increases, including the top 2 percent, but only if accompanied by responsible spending limits. The key is balance.
My father was born in the year 1900 in South Carolina, and he grew up at a time where being an African-American child in the American South was to be deprived of access to anything close to a reasonable education. He only had three years of formal education, but he was self-taught. He read two newspapers a day.
I do worry that as we try to fix this long-term debt and deficit situation that we don't destroy the market incentives for biomedical research. What I fear is the government using its considerable clout to say, 'Here's the price we're setting for your medicines.'
I'm the last senior executive who was hired by Roy Vagelos. It's an honor, but it also imposes upon me an obligation not only to think about his legacy but also about this company's legacy.
I think words have consequences, and I think actions have consequences.