For the second year in a row, The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Merck the No. 1 corporate donor in the United States in its annual survey of corporate giving. Merck topped the list of 93 of the leading Fortune 500 companies assessed. This ranking is a reflection of our on-going commitment to enhance the health and well-being of people around the world, not only through our discovery and development of important and innovative medicines and vaccines, but also through our philosophy of corporate responsibility that is increasing access to our medicines through far-reaching programs that donate and deliver our products to those who need them.

Launched in 1987, The Merck Mectizan Donation Program is the single largest, longest-standing public/private partnership of its kind. Through this program, Merck has delivered more than one billion doses of a product free of charge to those at risk for river blindness (onchocerciasis). This program now reaches some 40 million people per year in more than 30 countries where this disease is endemic.

The African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAP), a public/private partnership between the Government of Botswana, Merck & Co., Inc. and the Merck Company Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was established in 2000. Through a comprehensive approach encompassing four strategic areas of intervention—prevention, care, support and treatment—ACHAP is supporting and enhancing the national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in this sub-Saharan African nation where two in five adults are infected with the deadly virus. Merck also is donating its antiretroviral medicines to the Government of Botswana’s national antiretroviral program.

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