Merck boss quits president’s council
CEO cites Trump’s refusal to denounce white supremacy
Merck & Co.’s CEO quit U.S. President Donald Trump’s council of manufacturing executives Monday, saying, “America’s leaders must honour our fundamental values” by rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.
He was almost immediately attacked by Trump on Twitter.
Following a weekend of violence in Virginia involving white-supremacist groups that Trump has been criticized for not explicitly condemning, Merck chief executive officer Ken Frazier said, “as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.”
Less than an hour later, Trump tweeted in response, “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”
The council has included top executives from Boeing, Dow Chemical and Johnson & Johnson. The move by Frazier — the latest CEO to quit the groups — comes after a weekend of violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va., that resulted in one death.
Trump, over the weekend, said “many sides” bore blame for the violence, though has so far not directly criticized the supremacist groups that were protest- ing the removal of a statue of the confederate war general Robert E. Lee.
On Saturday, a man drove a Dodge Challenger into a group of counterdemonstrators, killing a woman.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said there is “no bigger case right now that we are working on” and said the attack with the car met the definition of domestic terrorism. Social issues Frazier is a black CEO — a rarity in large American corporations — and Merck has in the past taken stands on social issues. In 2012, the Kenilworth, N.J.based company’s foundation ended funding for the Boy Scouts of America over the group’s exclusion of gays from its leadership ranks.
Frazier is a registered Democrat, according to Pennsylvania voter records.
Trump created two CEO advisory groups early in his presidency. Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman leads one described as a strategy and policy forum, and Dow Chemical’s Andrew Liveris organized a manufacturing initiative. After an initial burst of activity and press attention, the councils have fizzled with neither meeting since April.
Other chief executives have also stepped down from the various business-advisory groups. Earlier this year, Elon Musk of Tesla and Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger quit the strategy and policy panel after Trump withdrew from the Paris climate pact.
Former Uber Technologies CEO Travis Kalanick quit in February after Trump’s executive order on immigration.
Trump made U.S. drug prices an issue during the presidential campaign and after — at one point accusing drug companies of “getting away with murder.”
While his rhetoric on the subject has cooled, the Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to try and bring more competition to the market for some drugs and speed more generic drugs to the market. Merck’s prices Frazier, in December, said his company has a “restrained” approach to price increases, calling aggressive price increases a foolhardy move by the industry.
In a company report published this year, Merck said it has a “long history of making our medicines and vaccines accessible and affordable through responsible pricing practices.”
For 2016, the list price on its drugs rose by 9.6 per cent on average while the net price, which more closely reflects what is paid by consumers, rose 5.5 per cent, according to the report.
Merck shares were up 0.29 per cent, closing at $62.67 in New York.
Toby Cosgrove, the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, plans to remain on the strategy and policy group, said Eileen Sheil, a spokesperson for the health system. She said the group hasn’t met since April, and there are no meetings scheduled.
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein also took to Twitter Monday in response to the violence, citing former president Abraham Lincoln.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” wrote Blankfein, whose inaugural tweet in June expressed disapproval over Trump’s decision to ditch the Paris climate accord.