Merck was one of the first companies to support the Pharmaceutical Industry Principles for Responsible Supply Chain Management, designed to make sure that working conditions in the pharmaceutical supply chain are safe, that workers are treated with respect and dignity, and that manufacturing processes are safe and environmentally responsible.

For more information, click here.

Product Packaging

The packaging we use for our finished products and for our in-process materials must preserve the sterility, purity and efficacy of our products and prevent breakage. Our finished products must meet the customer needs and, for some products, must be child safe and tamper-evident. Without compromising these attributes, we have worked to eliminate packaging waste by reducing the number of unique pharmaceutical product images worldwide and by reducing packaging line scrap.

As we continue to expand our packaging improvement efforts, we will make sure that any change to our product packaging doesn't increase product discards, which would offset the environmental benefits of the packaging improvement. In the near term, our new packaging goals align around two priorities—reducing our use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and increasing our use of sustainable and recycled forest fiber. Over the next year our newly formed Sustainable Packaging Community of Practice will be working closely with the business to define how we can make our packaging better for the environment without compromising product quality or increasing discards.

For more information, click here.

Packaging Partnerships

GreenBlue Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC): The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) is a project of GreenBlue, a nonprofit that equips business with the science and the resources to make products more sustainable. The SPC is an industry working group dedicated to a more robust environmental vision for packaging.