Payments to health care professionals

United States
As an early supporter of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, we believe in broad disclosure of financial relationships between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry. In October 2009, our company began voluntarily disclosing all payments to U.S.-based health care professionals who speak on behalf of our company about our products and other health care issues.

We engage with health care professionals around the world to conduct company-sponsored clinical studies on the safety and effectiveness of our products. We conduct these studies, in accordance with strict regulatory requirements, with “real world” physicians and their patients in order to learn more about our products and bring new medicines and vaccines to patients who need them. Once a product is approved for marketing, we continue to conduct studies to monitor ongoing safety and effectiveness.

We also engage with health care professionals through our Investigator Studies Program, whose mission is to advance the delivery of quality health care by supporting investigator-initiated original research that will enhance the understanding of disease entities and their treatment. This program is open to all academic and community-based physicians and researchers worldwide who are interested in conducting their own research.

We are committed to the discovery and development of important new drugs and vaccines through collaboration with scientific leaders from academic and scientific organizations around the world. Advice in the form of consulting engagements with external medical and scientific experts results in meaningful scientific exchanges that bring real-world knowledge and perspectives to our company. These critical exchanges contribute to advancing science both at our company and in the broader scientific community, and ultimately help benefit human health.

We also engage physicians as speakers in the U.S. through our company’s Medical Forums, which are designed to deliver balanced medical and scientific information to health care professionals so that patients can have access to the medicines and vaccines they need and use these products correctly. These programs are structured to be consistent with the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals and are conducted in compliance with FDA regulations to help ensure that our product information is presented in an appropriately balanced manner, with respect to potential benefits and risks.

Search Open Payments Data

Philanthropic grants and contributions

We report philanthropic grants and charitable contributions, including contributions made through the Office of Social Business Innovation, our company’s Foundation, U.S. Global Human Health, and the Merck for Mothers program.

All reports are intended for residents of the U.S. and Canada.

• Charitable Contributions Report 2022
• Charitable Contributions Report 2021
• Charitable Contributions Report 2020
• Charitable Contributions Report 2019
• Charitable Contributions Report 2018
• Charitable Contributions Report 2017

Post-marketing requirements

We recognize the importance of providing transparent information about the status of our marketing and development activities after a product has been approved by regulatory authorities.

This information can help ensure that health care providers and patients remain informed about our products.

To inform the public about post-marketing activities, we will, on a quarterly basis, post information on this website concerning post-marketing requirements (PMRs) for U.S.-marketed products intended for human use. Information will include the nature and status of the PMRs for the life cycle of a marketed product, in accordance with U.S. regulations.

Information will also include reference to clinical, nonclinical or pharmacovigilance studies/trials that have been identified as PMRs. Additional background on post-marketing requirements is available at the FDA website.

U.S. Post-Marketing Requirements Report (4Q2022)

Headings, column headings & explanations

Registered Trade Name : Trade name registered in the U.S. market

Generic Name : Active ingredient[s] in the drug

NDA/BLA #: New Drug Application or Biologic License Application number

Original Due Date : The date in the original FDA correspondence by which our company has agreed to complete the post-marketing requirement to the FDA

FDA Approved Deferred Due Date : The new date agreed to with FDA by which the commitment must be completed.

Status : The status of the post-marketing requirement at the last quarterly update (Pending, Ongoing, Delayed, Terminated, Submitted, Fulfilled and Released—see definitions below)

Explanation of Status : An explanation is provided where appropriate. Any revisions to due date agreed upon with the FDA are reflected here

PMR #: Post-Marketing Requirements number assigned to commitment by the FDA

PMR Description : The description of the post-marketing requirement

Below are definitions of the status used for each final report submission. There may be differences between the status of the information posted to this website and that on the FDA Post-Marketing Commitments website, due primarily to the differences in timing of the updates and the fact that the Company only posts the status of the final report submission and not interim milestone statuses (such as final protocol, study/trial completion, etc.). The due date reflected is the original due date agreed upon with FDA.

Any revisions to due date agreed upon with the FDA are reflected in the Explanation of Status.

Pending : Commitment activity has not yet started.

Ongoing : Activity for the Commitment has begun. The commitment status should be changed from “Pending” to “Ongoing” when the first subject/patient is screened.

Delayed : The status is changed to “Delayed” once the original due date has passed or the due dates of any approved extensions have passed.

Terminated : The applicant ended the study before completion and has not yet submitted a final study report to the FDA.

Submitted : The applicant has concluded or terminated the study and has submitted a final study report to the FDA, but the FDA has not yet notified the applicant in writing that the study commitment has been fulfilled or that the commitment has been released.

Fulfilled : The applicant has submitted the final study report for the commitment, and upon review of the final study report, the FDA is satisfied that the applicant has met the terms of the commitment.

Released : The FDA has informed the applicant that it has been released from its obligation to conduct the post-marketing study because the study is either no longer feasible or would no longer provide useful information.

Pricing practices in the U.S.

As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency about our business operations, and to help people better understand our pricing practices in the U.S., in 2017 we began disclosing information about the price of medicines across our portfolio in the U.S.

This information includes changes in average annual list and net prices across our product portfolio since 2010. The disclosure also includes the average discount rate across our portfolio each year.

These disclosures don’t tell the complete story about how we are responding to concerns about access and affordability. We have a long history of discovering medicines and vaccines and making them accessible and affordable to people who need them. Additional information about our activities can be found in our ESG Progress Report. We also recognize that more needs to be done, and we welcome opportunities to work with stakeholders to find long-term solutions.

Pricing Transparency Report (2010-2022) (Posted February 2023)