Public relations is a great resource when a company wants to express to their audience how they are positively impacting the environment and public. PR will be able to communicate with a company's audience/consumers about the company's good-doings, and they are able to listen to the public's reaction. Harold Burson gave a speech at 18th IPRA World Conference about public relations responsibility to its corporation, and spoke how corporate conscious is the job description for public relations.
Merck & Co. is a one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, with its headquarters located in New Jersey. The company also publishes a series of medical reference books, including the world's best-selling medical textbook, Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. They were also recently ranked #8 on CR's 100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2013.
Being a pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co. should be socially responsible. They work with many different compounds and chemicals that harm the environment, and should take opportunity of purchasing machines that reduce the pollution caused by these chemicals. They may also help provide developing countries with crucial, life-saving medicines. In the article, The Pharmaceutical Industry and Corporate Social Responsibility, Dr. Harvey discusses that the primary social responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry is discover and develop new drugs and vaccines. However, Merck & Co. does a poor job at being socially responsible.
Although Merck & Co. has made many donations, such as teaming up with UNICEF and donating its drug Mectizan, the company has also experienced poor publicity from being held responsible for 1/3 of the VOC emission pollution in the San Diego area. As a result, the company had to pay out $1.8 million, and install new machines that reduce emission pollution. More recently, the company had failed at their social responsibility, by failing to notify patients of serious side effects from taking the drug Fosamax. The company's internal emails were leaked that had not only shown evidence that they were hiding this information, but also poked fun at patients who would complained about side effects they were having. The case is currently undergoing. Now would be the best time for the company to start working on some publicity that shows them in a more positive light. Being ranked #8 on the Corporate Citizen's list may start to shed some positive light on the company, and show that they are making more of effort to be socially responsible.
