Millions of people worldwide in developed and developing countries are living longer, more productive lives today thanks, in part, to better healthcare and access to innovative medicines and vaccines.

This, coupled with other technological advances, has also helped to strengthen the economic development of many individuals and countries. But while many have benefited from medical and scientific achievements, at least as many are still excluded due to poverty, lack of education, discrimination and other complex factors.

It is unacceptable that the vast majority of people around the world are unable to benefit from advances in medicines and healthcare. As a global healthcare company, Merck believes it has an important role and responsibility in improving access to medicines, vaccines and quality healthcare worldwide. To help address this global dilemma, we are committed to discovering smart, sustainable ways to expand access to healthcare, and we recognize that this focus is necessary to sustain our business in the longer term.

However the enormity of the challenge is far greater than our ability alone to address it. Barriers to quality care and medical treatment such as lack of trained healthcare professionals, weak infrastructure, civil strife and a shortage of safe drinking water in many parts of the world make even basic healthcare delivery difficult at best. We believe our role in addressing these far greater challenges is to work in partnership with others—governments, donors, patient organizations, healthcare professionals, nongovernmental organizations, multilateral organizations and others in the private sector to lend our expertise and knowledge. We also have an important role to play through our public policy and outreach efforts to advocate for change that will improve access while balancing our ability to continue to innovate and develop needed products.

Through a multi-pronged strategy, we are improving access to medicines and vaccines by examining our approach to research and development, manufacturing and supply, registration, commercialization, and community investment. To guide our worldwide approach to access to health along these key areas of activity, we recently announced our company-wide Access to Health Statement of Guiding Principles; as noted below, we strive to embed these principles into our operations and business strategies as a way to seek innovative ways to expand access on an on-going basis.

We do not have all the answers to the access challenge. For that reason, we spend significant time with external stakeholders with other perspectives and experience. By listening to, and working with, groups such as the GAVI Alliance, UNICEF, UNAIDS, Project HOPE, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Oxfam and others, we can learn a great deal. We are open to constructive dialogue with all organizations on ways we can do more and to collaborations that will help us move toward our common goal of achieving greater access and, ultimately, saving lives.

We are aware that various stakeholders are calling on the global pharmaceutical industry for greater transparency on the impact of access strategies and initiatives and evidence of how access strategies are integrated into an overall business strategy. We have sought to do this by developing and reporting on relevant indicators and articulating the business case for our overall approach as reflected in our Access to Health Statement of Guiding Principles.

We also recognize that there is a need for relevant industry-specific indicators that will allow comparisons across the industry. Such indicators are beginning to be developed. One example is the Access to Medicines Index (ATMI), which ranked Merck No. 2 in the 2010 Index. Merck believes that the ATMI represents an important first step in this process but more work is needed to ensure all indicators are relevant and provide true measures of corporate responsibility. Toward that end, we remain committed to working with the ATMI and other organizations, including the Global Reporting Initiative, to develop meaningful measurement tools for our industry.