Merck’s Clark on PR Woes: ‘I Can’t Blame the Media’
Posted by Peter Loftus
May 1, 2008, 4:22 pm
Merck CEO Richard Clark has taken some hard knocks since the results of the Enhance study raised questions about the effectiveness of cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia.
At a Morgan Stanley conference today, Clark was asked about all the bad press the company has been getting: Is Merck not providing the positive stories or are the media not interested?
“The answer to that question I struggle with,” he replied. “We need to do a better job as a company and as an industry. Having been at Merck for 35 years, we take way too much for granted. And I don’t think we’re aggressive enough in getting our stories out there.” He went on to explain that he thinks “there’s a trust deficit around us as an industry, and somewhat as a company…I’ve become much more sensitive to issues around trust and what we can do to improve trust globally.”
Pressed further, he said, “I can’t blame the media. I have to blame us. We have to do a better job of it.”
In early February, Merck EVP Ken Frazier downplayed the reaction to Enhance as a “media event” during a presentation at a Merrill Lynch conference. Other episodes of “mischaracterization” and intense media scrutiny of drugs have tended to have “very dramatic short-term impacts” that abate upon a fuller presentation and analysis of scientific evidence, he said. Frazier said at the time that it would take “several weeks” before Merck would be able to gauge the effect on sales.
Last week at Merck’s annual meeting, Clark once again called Enhance “a vastly misunderstood clinical trial,” while acknowledging the reality of the financial hit the company has taken since January. The next day Schering-Plough’s Fred Hassan termed the reaction “unwarranted confusion” in an earnings call. Merck reduced its estimate of operating income by $700 million for the year from the joint venture with Schering-Plough that sells Vytorin and Zetia.
Permalink | Trackback URL: blogs.wsj.com |
