As AIDS continues to ravage the world, particularly developing countries in Africa, the need for affordable and plentiful medicine has never been so great.
And Raymond Gilmartin, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Merck -- one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies -- says he will continue to provide people with the help they need.
"I believe Merck has the capability to ... discover an HIV vaccine," Gilmartin said.
Gilmartin gave a lesson in leadership yesterday in Huntsman Hall, as part of the Wharton Leadership Lectures program. At least 300 people attended the talk.
Gilmartin spoke first of the work his company did at the cutting edge of science, developing breakthrough medicines that have made it a great success.
Merck has been on Business Week's top 50 companies list seven times out of seven, the only company to achieve such a feat. Yet a benevolent strain overrides the profit-making side of the corporation.
"Medicines are for the people, not the profits," Gilmartin said. "We cannot rest until our finest achievements are available to everyone."
Gilmartin said that Merck has been acknowledged as a force for good by the business world, placing its ethics in front of profit making. This has not compromised its ability to conduct groundbreaking research, though.
Industry experts acknowledge that "if you want to discover novel drugs, Merck is the place for you," Gilmartin said. At the same time, "Merck has been able to market itself as a company that does care about affordability and accessibility of medicine."
In pursuit of its altruistic aims, Gilmartin said Merck provides drugs free or at greatly reduced prices to over 60 countries. The company has also taken more active steps in alleviating AIDS, notably in its work in Botswana in collaboration with the Gates Foundation.
"Gates and Merck put up $15 million each" to give to Botswana to fight AIDS, Gilmartin said. "We were able to bring resources, expertise and medicine."
Gilmartin pointed to a lack of commitment in the world to combatting AIDS, saying that "we have not yet fully appreciated the human and economic devastation HIV is causing."
The leadership in Botswana provides a better example of how to fight the disease, according to Gilmartin.
"The President [of Botswana] is totally committed to saving his country from HIV," he said. He added that the compliance rate with the rules for taking the drugs was 85 percent in Botswana, higher than in developed countries.
Many students found the talk enlightening and inspirational.
"I was very impressed how he stood up and defended his convictions ... even in times when a Wall Street analyst is hitting you over the head," Wharton graduate student Sven Pfeiffer said. He added that strong ethics among pharmaceutical companies is especially important considering that their products save lives.
"Leadership is something we talk a lot about at Wharton," said Shahab Salemy, who is chairman-elect of the lectures program. "But you can only talk about it for so long. This gives a unique perspective ... these people are who we aspire to become."
