KENILWORTH, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today issued its 2018/2019 Corporate Responsibility Report. The report highlights the company’s performance and progress in its four corporate responsibility priority areas of Access to Health, Employees, Environmental Sustainability and Ethics & Values.

“Operating responsibly is at the heart of our ability to deliver sustainable impact and long-term value for our business and society,” said Kenneth C. Frazier, Merck chairman and chief executive officer.

The report reflects the company’s belief that serving social good and achieving business success are deeply interdependent. Merck is tackling some of society’s biggest health challenges and joining forces with the global community to help realize the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Highlights from this year’s report include:

• Merck has reaffirmed its commitment to provide supply of the investigational Ebola Zaire vaccine as part of international response efforts to address Ebola outbreaks. The vaccine has been administered to more than 200,000 people in Central Africa.
• Merck for Mothers, a $500 million initiative that aims to reduce maternal mortality, has now reached more than 9 million women in 48 countries.
• With a continued focus on science, the company’s research in oncology is providing hope to a growing number of patients with development programs across more than 30 tumor types.
• As part of its commitment to the health and wellbeing of employees, Merck offers programs, resources and tools to 99% of its global workforce with the goal of reaching 100% in 2020.
• Merck continues to make progress on its environmental goals. An agreement with Invenergy Wind Development will help Merck reduce its GHG emissions to help combat climate change.
• New laboratories, offices and major renovations are designed to meet LEED Silver or the comparable country standard. The China Head Office is certified as LEED Gold and new South San Francisco Office was built to LEED Gold Standards.
• In 2018 and again in 2019, Merck was honored by the American Chemistry Society (ACS) as one of five winners of the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards.
• In 2018, the company signed onto Paradigm for Parity®, furthering its commitment to gender equality. In 2019, it joined P&G and Women Deliver to introduce the Deliver for Good Business Ally Network to strengthen collaboration within the private sector and to promote critical investments in girls and women.

Learn more about Merck’s approach to corporate responsibility and progress on key initiatives in the 2018/2019 Corporate Responsibility Report.

About Merck

For more than a century, Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and communities around the world - including cancer, cardio-metabolic diseases, emerging animal diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and infectious diseases including HIV and Ebola. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.