How We Do Business

Offering innovative solutions for a better life, our Healthcare, Life Science and Performance Materials business sectors stand for high-quality products. They must be safe and should not pose any danger to patients, customers or the environment. That’s why we carefully examine product safety across the entire life cycle, by implementing globally applicable policies, standards and processes. Patients and customers receive extensive informational material with our products so that they understand them as fully as possible and can use them safely. 

Learn more about our Regulations & Guidelines

Our business activities require raw materials, packaging, technical products, components, and services, which we source from over 60,000 suppliers across almost 150 countries. When sourcing supplies, we look for quality, safe delivery and competitive pricing. But we also insist that fundamental environmental and social standards are met. To make sure that our suppliers uphold these standards, we regularly request self-disclosures or initiate audits. We procure most of the mica, a raw material for our pigments, from India. There we also take special measures for the local supply chain to ensure compliance with our environmental and social standards.

We are a member of the Together for Sustainability (TfS) chemical industry initiative. Developing and emerging countries are becoming increasingly important to us as sourcing markets. We feel a particularly strong sense of responsibility where these countries are concerned. Learn more

We are committed to preserving human rights within our sphere of influence and welcome the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights adopted by the UN Human Rights Council. In the United Kingdom, we are required by the UK Modern Slavery Act to report on the steps and measures we are taking to counter forced labor and human trafficking.

Merck Group Modern Slavery Statement 2018

Our success is founded on the abilities of our employees – and on their ideas and enthusiasm for our company. Because they are central to who we are and what we can achieve, we are keen to develop their talents at every opportunity. We seek to offer the best possible working conditions, as well as encouraging people to develop their talents through continued training and education. This also means empowering women to take on leadership positions within Merck. By offering flexible hours, childcare facilities, or the chance to stretch their legs on our running track, we do all we can to help our employees achieve a healthy work-life balance. As a team, we treat each other with fairness and respect, and value equal opportunity and diversity. Find out more in the Diversity section of our CR report.

Energy conservation represents an important component of our climate impact mitigation activities. By adapting and updating our technology, we are improving the energy efficiency of our R&D operations, our production processes and our buildings. Just as important is the reduction of process-related emissions. Furthermore, we are working to lower the emissions resulting from energy generation. Where financially viable, we additionally utilize renewable energies to generate our own power.