Welcome home: Celebrating our new global headquarters
Take a look inside our state-of-the-art reimagined workplace
July 3, 2023
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Colleagues across our company celebrated our “homecoming” and ushered in a new era of collaboration for patients around the world with a ribbon-cutting at our global headquarters in Rahway, New Jersey, in June.
Rahway was the site of our first manufacturing plant, and was our former headquarters from 1926 to 1992. The updated collaborative workspace brings together all of our divisions and leadership teams in one location.
“When you think about what it takes to ideate, to innovate, to invent — it takes collaboration, it takes teamwork, it takes all of us focused on what matters most, which is putting the patient at the center of everything we do and delivering with urgency on their behalf,” Chairman and CEO Rob Davis said. “And we’re now able to do that as one unified company at this facility.”
MSD’s business development and licensing team explain how they identify new opportunities to strengthen our robust R&D pipeline
June 5, 2023
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It takes a special kind of talent to find and secure the right deals to keep us at the forefront of innovation. Leaders from our business development and licensing team sat down to discuss how their work is a key component to building and maintaining a strong pipeline.
Here’s what you need to know:
01.
Harnessing our legacy
Our reputation for using leading-edge science can make business development connections easier, explains Lizabeth Leveille, vice president, business development.
02.
The speed and determination to get it done
Elizabeth Naldi-Jacob, vice president, business development, knows that having a direct line of reporting to the top is what sets MSD apart as a potential partner.
03.
Balancing the internal and the external
We have a one pipeline mindset, and each asset receives the same focus and rigor whether it comes from inside our company or out, says Christopher Mortko, vice president, business development.
04.
Working hand-in-hand with our scientists
Grace Han McMahon, associate vice president, business development, explains why engaging our internal science leaders is crucial to making the right deals.
05.
What we’re interested in (and why it’s everything)
Our panelists discuss why we focus on five key areas — and when we’re willing to look beyond them.
Great partnerships begin with great conversation. Learn more about how discovery & development and licensing shape the future of MSD.
Safeguarding the environment through green chemistry
When a manufacturing process doesn’t meet our standards, we build an award-winning, planet-friendly one
June 1, 2023
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Many of us are trying to go green, changing our behavior and lifestyles to reduce our impact on the environment. And our company is no different. Protecting the environment is a key part of our commitment to operating responsibly. We believe a healthy planet is essential to human and animal health, as well as to the sustainability of our business.
Going green can also enhance opportunities for product innovation and cost- and risk-reduction. And our efforts have been getting noticed. Members of our small molecule process research and development (SM PR&D) group have been honored recently for their achievements in developing groundbreaking green chemistry solutions.
“Our strategy is to provide innovative and transformative solutions — rather than incremental improvements to historical practices — to achieve our goals on sustainable manufacturing.”
Kevin Maloney Executive director, process chemistry, SM PR&D
2023 Peter J. Dunn Award for design of biocatalytic cascade
MSD was honored for the design of a biocatalytic cascade, a novel process using natural substances including enzymes to build molecular complexity while drastically reducing hazardous waste.
“Enzymes are the action heroes of biology — and with a little training, they can be the superheroes for chemistry, too.”
Stephanie Galanie Director, protein engineering, enabling technologies PR&D
2022 Green Chemistry Award for the development of a sustainable manufacturing process
This award — given by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — recognized our company’s development of a green and sustainable manufacturing process for large quantities of medicine while preventing millions of pounds of waste per year.
“It was more critical than ever that we develop the most green and sustainable processes, as well as invent new reactions to realize the ultimate synthetic route from sustainable raw materials.”
Patrick Fier Principal scientist, process chemistry, SM PR&D
This marks our sixth consecutive Green Chemistry Challenge Award and ninth overall.
Learn more
Green chemistry is just one way we help support a healthy planet. Our commitment to environmental sustainability focuses on improving operational efficiency, reducing environmental risks in our supply chain and lowering the environmental impact of our products and packaging. Read more about our new goals to achieve carbon neutrality across our operations by 2025.
Here for Good: Bridging the gap between bedside and bench
Members of MSD’s lung cancer clinical development team say working in the hospital inspired their drive to innovate for patients
May 19, 2023
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Dr. Ayman Samkari remembers how treating patients during his medical school rotations brought him face to face with the unmet needs of people with cancer. He learned to listen to what matters for patients beyond their diagnoses, and he sought new ways to make a greater impact as an oncologist.
Watch Samkari and Dr. Nazly Shariati discuss their passion for their work:
“Even though I enjoyed every moment of practicing medicine and treating patients with cancer, I had the question at the back of my mind: How can I do things differently? How can I improve patient outcomes?” recalled Samkari, who now works for MSD as executive director in oncology clinical development. “That’s what drove me to pursue my career in clinical research, where I could help patients on a larger scale.”
And after 25 years as a surgeon, when a hand ailment ultimately sidelined her in the operating room, Dr. Nazly Shariati found that research was another avenue to help more patients.
“MSD allowed me to not only fulfill my goals in life and my career but continue on my path to have an impact on patients’ lives.”
— Dr. Nazly Shariati
Senior principal scientist in oncology clinical development
From careers in clinical care to careers in research
Samkari’s background as an oncologist, and Shariati’s as a surgeon, have informed their work in our lung cancer clinical development program. All too familiar with the challenges of treating patients with advanced disease, Samkari and Shariati are shifting their research to investigating lung cancer at its earlier stages, before it has spread, when it’s more likely to be successfully treated.
When she was a cardiothoracic surgeon, Shariati often felt a sinking feeling whenever a patient’s lung cancer would return, which is common among people diagnosed with lung cancer that was removed surgically. But today she’s excited by scientific advances in resectable lung cancer focused on helping more patients.
Understanding the patient experience
Shariati said understanding the patient experience is what drives a researcher’s passion, innovation and desire to help others.
“It is very important to have that experience in managing and seeing patients because it gives you a completely different perspective on how you conduct your work.”
— Dr. Ayman Samkari
Executive director in oncology clinical development
Each day, Samkari and Shariati continue to push the boundaries in research to help make a difference for people living with cancer.
VIDEO: Patient with PAH shares her clinical trial experience
Diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, Colleen Brunetti knows the importance of participating in clinical trials
May 15, 2023
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Colleen Brunetti is a wife and a mother of two who lives with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) — a rare disease that affects the pulmonary arteries. She’s passionate about helping others affected by PAH and focused on helping the medical community by participating in clinical trials.
Patient volunteers like Brunetti are central to the success of clinical trials. Diverse participation is essential as different people may have different reactions to the same treatment, based on their age, gender, weight, race, ethnicity, lifestyle or severity of illness or disease.
“I'm acutely aware that without clinical trials, we don't move forward.”
— Colleen Brunetti
Participating in a clinical trial requires a supportive team
In addition to her doctors, Brunetti’s family is a key part of her support team. She said it’s vital to be open and understanding of the impact clinical trial participation may have not only on yourself, but also those around you. She added that talking, asking questions and learning more about the benefits and risks of a clinical trial is critical.
“We work as a team together to decide if a clinical trial, or anything that I need, is in my best interest,” she said. “No matter what you go through, there’s going to be changes. Having heart-to-heart conversations about what that looks like and what might need to be adjusted is really important.”
What Brunetti considered when joining a clinical trial
Brunetti said she encourages anyone considering joining a clinical trial to understand that “your doctor has to be your teammate.” She said questions will come up, like:
Will I receive the medicine or the placebo?
What kind of side effects might I anticipate?
How am I going to manage this?
What happens if there’s an emergency?
“If it’s not for you, that’s OK,” she said. “But if you can, I would encourage people to jump in with eyes wide open.”
Why it’s so important to participate in clinical trials
Clinical trials are research studies with volunteers designed to learn more about how our bodies respond to medicines, vaccines, medical devices or other treatments. It may take many clinical trials to understand which treatments work and how they work.
MSD’s Q1 2023 results reflect continued strong underlying performance across key growth drivers, particularly in oncology and vaccines. Our company announced Q1 worldwide sales of $14.5 billion.
“Inspired by our commitment to bring bold science forward to address critical unmet patient needs, we began 2023 with significant advancements across our innovative pipeline,” said Robert M. Davis, chairman and chief executive officer, MSD. “Our first-quarter results are a reflection of the focused execution of our science-led strategy, strong performance across our key growth drivers, continued momentum commercially and operationally, and — most importantly — the collective and dedicated efforts of our colleagues around the world. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made, and we will continue to move with speed and agility to deliver value for patients and shareholders, now and well into the future.”
MSD anticipates full-year 2023 worldwide sales to be between $57.7 billion and $58.9 billion.
Take a look at the infographic below for more details on Q1 2023 results.
Individualized neoantigen therapies: exploring one medicine for one patient
Scientists are researching new ways to help train the immune system to fight cancer
April 13, 2023
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Over the past decade, immunotherapy has transformed our understanding of how the immune system can be used to help fight some types of cancer. However, for the last 50 years, scientists have been researching how we could potentially use vaccines to treat cancer — another investigational approach to harness the immune system to help recognize and destroy cancer cells — with little success.
Now we’re looking at a potential therapy that is building upon the learnings of immunotherapy trials from the past and incorporating that into an individualized cancer approach that’s specific to a patient’s own tumor. Researchers are currently exploring the potential of individualized neoantigen therapies to help fight cancer.
Cancer research is becoming more personalized
Cancer is a result of the body’s own cells undergoing mutations which create abnormal proteins in cancer cells, known as neoantigens, that are not usually seen in normal cells. These mutations are unique to each person’s tumor, so that’s one of the reasons why patients who have been diagnosed with the same type of cancer and who have received the same type of treatment may have different responses.
As the treatment of cancer continues to evolve and advance, researchers are focusing on more individualized approaches. This includes a new area of research into individualized neoantigen therapies that use information from a person’s tumor biopsy sample to help develop a therapy unique to their tumor’s mutations.
“This area of research has really captured our imagination of what’s possible in the development of cancer therapeutics.”
Dr. Jane Healy Vice president and head of oncology early development at MSD Research Laboratories
In collaboration with Moderna, we’re studying this area of research in an effort to advance more individualized approaches to help improve outcomes for people living with cancer.
Learn more about individualized neoantigen therapies
Testing experiments in a lab can be a lot like raising kids. Sometimes your molecules do what you want them to do, and sometimes they don’t. But it’s a challenge Denarra Simmons, a senior scientist at MSD and a mother of two, is always up for.
“You’re constantly trying to find other medicines because all medicines don’t work the same way for all people,” Simmons said.
“You spend the long nights thinking about experiments, how to make things better, how to move things faster to help more people.”
— Denarra Simmons
Simmons has been curious about how and why things work for most of her life. As a young child, she peppered her family with questions, trying to understand the “why” behind anything and everything. But it wasn’t until a man in a lab coat came to her grade school to talk about his career that she realized what her true passion was.
“He wrote an equation on the board and was talking about how people made medicines, and I thought that was fascinating,” Simmons said. “But the thing that really drew my attention was how excited he was when he was explaining what he did. I wanted to do something that I would love that much and over time, I realized that for me, it was science and helping people.”
For 12 years, Simmons has funneled that passion into her research at MSD. Simmons works in drug development to test the efficacy and safety of our biologic medicines used for investigational new drug (IND) enabling studies.
“Working in the lab is my favorite part of my job — and getting good data."
Some days in the lab may be more successful than others, and Simmons uses it all to show her children what it takes to be a scientist. “Good days are celebrated, and the tricky days, we keep working towards improving,” she said.
Simmons also feels strongly about teaching her children that there’s more to life than work.
“I’m always thinking about the experiments, but when I’m home with the children, I really try to give them the attention and time they need,” she said.
But once her daughter and son finish their homework and head to bed, Simmons finds herself thinking about her next set of experiments.
“When you find out a medicine you worked on has helped so many people, you feel really special and you know all the work has been worthwhile,” she said. “And that’s why you’re doing what you do: you’re making a difference in society.”
Our people
In Burkina Faso, a personal mission to make a difference in one community
MSD colleagues found non-profit to provide critical resources for a village in one of the poorest countries in the world
November 28, 2022
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Challenging life experiences united two MSD colleagues — Jules Millogo and Cathy Hoath — on a mission to create opportunities and break the cycle of poverty in the small village of Konkourona, in the West African country of Burkina Faso.
Homelessness, hunger and illness in Konkourona
Konkourona is where Millogo, director, medical affairs, global vaccines, grew up with extremely limited access to health care, education, clean water and the bare necessities. It’s also where he witnessed six of his siblings pass away from preventable diseases. Millogo’s father was a strong believer in education and sent him to attend the nearest school in another village, which was hours away from Konkourona on foot.
Despite experiencing much communal trauma growing up, Millogo graduated from medical school and began his career in a Burkina Faso province far from Konkourona, serving as the only doctor for a population of 250,000.
“I somehow managed to overcome bouts of homelessness, hunger and illness from infectious diseases that often come with extreme poverty,” said Millogo. “I grew up knowing that I needed to make a difference in Konkourona and bring opportunities and hope to the people living there.”
Forming Konkourona Alliance Foundation (KAFO) to fight for opportunity and equity
When Millogo joined MSD, he met Cathy Hoath, senior director of regulatory affairs international, vaccines. Hoath was born in Booth Memorial Hospital for Unwed Mothers in Philadelphia, after her teenage birth mother was thrown out of her parents’ home and was unable to find a job or apartment. That experience fuels Hoath’s drive to fight for equity and opportunities — for women, children and all who want to create better lives for themselves and their communities in the U.S. and around the world.
In 2019, during a meeting with the World Health Organization to register our company’s Ebola Zaire vaccine in the countries at highest risk in Africa, Millogo and Hoath began discussing ways they could support development in Konkourona. A few months later, they co-founded the non-profit organization Konkourona Alliance Foundation (KAFO), Inc.
“It was the perfect convergence of my professional and personal worlds, giving me the chance to fight for greater opportunity and equity for some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”
Cathy Hoath
Because remote villages like Konkourona are often referred to in development efforts as “the last mile,” they named their effort “The First Mile Development Program.” The people of Konkourona are KAFO’s highest priorities.
KAFO builds foundation for education
Millogo and Hoath have met many like-minded people — both within our company and beyond — who have become supporters of KAFO since its founding. And they’ve made good progress in Konkourona.
New classroom with desks and textbooks for each child
KAFO has built three new classrooms — reducing class sizes from approximately 90 to 45 students — as well as an office and housing for teachers. It also renovated an existing building for use as a library.
Approximately 400 students are now receiving assistance, from books and tutoring to tuition and bicycles so older students can make the two-hour journey to the closest upper-level school.
Students are making educational progress
Previously, only one or two students per year progressed to middle school. Now, in just a couple of years, over 80 students are continuing their education at middle school and beyond.
“In 2020, we began providing books for each child because there were not nearly enough. We also opened the school at night — the only place in the village with electricity — and offered tutoring services. That year, 20 children passed the middle school entrance exam — which is unheard of in any school in this sub-region,” said Hoath. “In the past two years, 63 additional students have progressed to middle school.”
Eric is a mentor to the younger children and a role model for what can be achieved with an opportunity and hard work.
One of those students is Eric, who couldn’t afford tuition for middle school. His father died, and he had to help his mother, so he got a job on Millogo’s brother’s farm. Now, through KAFO’s sponsorship, he’s going to high school. He’s also helping to sustain the program long term by mentoring younger children and working with the team on the ground to secure books and bicycles.
He’s now thinking about what he may want to study in college — a dream that would not have existed just several years ago.
“We have high hopes for this thoughtful young man,” said Millogo.
Improving access to health care and clean water
The maternal and child mortality rates in Burkina Faso are among the highest in the world. In addition to a lack of health care resources, the villagers also had very little access to clean water.
“One of the biggest problems we face in Konkourona is water-borne diseases,” said Millogo. “People drink water from wherever they can find it — open ponds or other sources contaminated with human and animal waste and other pathogens.”
Clean water is now widely available for drinking and washing
Working closely with the Mami Siara Na Association, a community-led organization created in 2019 to partner with KAFO to lead and sustain development efforts on the ground, the team has now constructed three water towers, three community fountains, a health center for mothers and children, a separate facility for primary care, a pharmacy, latrines, housing for health care workers and an incinerator.
“Providing access to clean water in Konkourona is practically a revolution.”
Jules Millogo
“And the health care facility, where we can provide critical maternal care, immunizations, and primary services for children and community members — like caring for illnesses, wounds, etcetera — will have a significant impact for this community in many ways,” said Millogo.
Providing economic development and hope for a better future
Konkourona’s new — and first — pharmacy
The improvements in education and health care have sparked local economic development as well. There are new jobs in Konkourona to ensure continued access to education, health care, water and sanitation, not to mention those related to construction activities.
Over the next five years, Millogo and Hoath plan to build a middle school, a technical school and a high school, as well as housing for teachers in these schools. They also plan to expand the health center.
“We’re all in on this program and learning every day how to do new things — things we don’t have experience in — to make progress in Konkourona,” said Millogo. “We’re fortunate that we’ve received so much support from so many people to help make these important visions a reality. And, we’re just getting started.”
Millogo plants one of the 1,100 native shade and fruit trees KAFO donated to provide an alternate food source and replenish what has been lost over the past few decades.
Worker sets up almost $500,000 of equipment and supplies in one of the new health center buildings. Green barriers surround two of the 1,100 trees KAFO planted earlier in the year as part of a reforestation effort.
Villagers celebrate the opening of the new — and first — health center.
At a celebration for the new health center, Millogo expresses gratitude to the people all over the world who are helping support KAFO's efforts in Konkourona.
New latrines built around the health center will help keep the environment clean by encouraging people to transition toward better sanitation.
The librarian in Konkourona's first library talks about the variety of books are now available to villagers. Previously, the only type of book available in the village was a small supply of textbooks.
Konkourona consists of roughly 4,000 subsistence farming inhabitants, who use nearly all crops or livestock to maintain the farmer and the farmer's family. This farmer is milling grain for storage.
Walking is the primary form of transportation in the village, but the fortunate families have bikes. Through sponsorships, students now have access to bikes to make the two-hour journey to upper level schools in other villages.
Donations from Care and Share Thrift Shoppes will help hundreds in Konkourona (left to right: Sarah Bergin, executive director of Care and Share Thrift Shoppes, Hoath and Millogo)
Sustainability
Accelerating global access
Our company is collaborating with a range of partners to enable access for patients around the world
September 8, 2022
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At the outset of our research efforts for COVID-19, our company made clear its commitment to make any vaccine or medicine we develop for this pandemic broadly accessible.
Here’s how we have been working to fulfill that commitment:
