Kenneth Frazier is stepping down as CEO of Merck in a shake-up for the pharmaceutical giant as the industry seeks to contribute solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic even as it faces bipartisan scrutiny over drug prices.
Frazier, who will be succeeded as CEO by the company s chief financial officer, will become executive chairman for an undetermined period of time when the transition occurs at the end of June.
He joined Merck in 1992 as a vice president, became president of the company s Global Human Health Division in 2007 and was elevated to CEO and chairman in 2011.
Frazier is one of only a handful of Black CEOs of major corporations. Of the 279 top executives in the 50 biggest companies in the S&P 100, only five were Black as of an analysis conducted in 2020 by USA TODAY.
Image: Getty. Illustration: Chloe Krammel
Getting your employees vaccinated makes sense for business as well as general health and safety. Private-sector participation in helping people get vaccinated is also likely to be crucial in revitalizing the economy.
The chaotic and mismanaged vaccine rollout has left the U.S. in a situation where industry has to help as much as it can, notes Dr. Jeremy Levin, chairman of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a nonprofit devoted to educating the public and health care industry on the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Companies need to ensure that all employees have access to not just the vaccine, but education about what the vaccine does and what the vaccines offer them and their families, he says.
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On Tap European leaders balk as AstraZeneca lags
while Sanofi chips in for others. HHS confident in syringe supply
as providers scramble for needed vaccine tools.
It’s Friday, welcome back to Prescription Pulse. Here for this headline, not for this rollout. As always, send tips to Sarah Owermohle at [email protected] or @owermohle. Loop in David Lim ([email protected] or @davidalim) and Brianna Ehley ([email protected] or @briannaehley).
Although the Baker administration has described the vaccine rollout as bumpy, a senior state Department of Public Health official said Wednesday that a target to make doses available to the general public starting in April is still in play.
Kevin Cranston, DPH s assistant commissioner and director of the department s bureau of infectious diseases and laboratory sciences, said during a virtual panel discussion that the original timeline unveiled last month remains reasonable. I do believe that s reasonable. We re well along our path, Cranston replied when asked if the April target for more widespread vaccine availability could still be achieved. Given the efficiency of the process to date, I actually believe those are reasonable timeframes.
Governors Wind Energy Coalition
Legislation introduced to establish clean fuel standard in New Mexico Source: By Erin Voegele, Ethanol Producer Magazine • Posted: Sunday, January 24, 2021
Legislation introduced in New Mexico on Jan. 19 aims to establish a Clean Fuel Standard within the state. The bill is supported by New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham, the Low Carbon Fuels Coalition, and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.
If signed into law, the bill, SB 11, would require a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) from transportation fuels by 2030 when compared to a 2018 baseline. The required GHG reduction threshold would ramp up to 20 percent by 2040.
Those who refine, blend, manufacture and import fuel would be tasked with achieving the reductions. Fuel retailers would not be impacted.