[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 143 (Wednesday, October 5, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     TRIBUTE TO DR. P. ROY VAGELOS

 Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to Dr. P. 
Roy Vagelos, one of the Nation's preeminent scientific and business 
leaders, on the occasion of his retirement as chairman of Merck & Co., 
the worlds largest pharmaceutical company. Under Dr. Vagelos' 
leadership, Merck introduced more new medicines than any other company. 
As its chief executive officer, Vagelos oversaw the growth of Merck's 
research budget from $425 million in 1985 to more than $1.3 billion in 
1994. During this extraordinary period, Merck was named America's Most 
Admired Company in Fortune magazine's survey of business for an 
unprecedented 7 consecutive years.
  Roy Vagelos is a proud son of New Jersey. Born in Westfield, as a 
young man he worked in his parent's luncheonette in Rahway, where he 
served sandwiches to workers from the nearby Merck plant. In 1951, as a 
22-year-old Columbia University medical student, he went to work in 
Merck's labs as a research intern. Following successful careers as a 
researcher at the National Institutes of Health and Washington 
University, Vagelos came back to his Rahway roots in 1975 to serve as 
Merck's senior vice president for research and later president of the 
labs. In these roles he presided over the discoveries of many important 
medicines and put Merck on a path to increased investment in research 
and development.
  In 1985, Dr. Vagelos became Merck's chief executive officer. A year 
later he also assumed the title of chairman. His 19 years at the helm 
of Merck were characterized by bold innovation, a commitment to 
research, and a willingness to assume risk that made Merck an industry 
leader. In response to growing national concerns over rising health 
care costs, Dr. Vagelos pledged that his company would keep price 
increases to the level of inflation. Seventeen other companies decided 
to follow Merck's lead. And then, just last year, Dr. Vagelos took the 
bold step of leading Merck's acquisition of Medco Containment Services, 
one of the Nation's leading prescription drug benefit management 
companies. With this move, Dr. Vagelos secured a place for Merck in the 
growing movement toward managed care.
  Throughout his years leading Merck, Dr. Vagelos never lost his 
commitment or connection to Merck's research and discovery mission. 
Since his coming to Merck in 1975, the company has put 34 new products 
on the market to fight diseases of the heart, eye, and prostate, among 
many others. He has also placed Merck in a leadership role in the fight 
to find a cure for AIDS. Merck helped create the Inter-Company 
Collaboration for AIDS Drug Development which puts 15 pharmaceutical 
companies in a joint effort to find new antiviral agents and 
combination therapies to fight HIV infection and AIDS.
  Dr. Vagelos' tenure at Merck was also characterized by a commitment 
to community and public service in New Jersey and throughout the world. 
In 1987, Dr. Vagelos pledged that Merck would provide Mectizan free of 
charge throughout the world to fight river blindness, a horrible 
disease that infects 18 million people, principally in Africa and Latin 
America. To date, Merck, with the help of the Carter Center in Atlanta 
and the World Health Organization, has made more than 29 million doses 
available to people in need.

  In 1990, thanks to a $3.7 million grant from Merck, Dr. Vagelos was 
able to preside over the opening of the Children's Inn at the National 
Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. The inn is a family-centered 
residence that allows the desperately ill children seeking help from 
the NIH to live in a supportive setting with their families. In New 
Jersey, Dr. Vagelos serves as a cochairman of the New Jersey Performing 
Arts Center, a cultural center planned for the heart of Newark. A $1 
million Merck donation is helping boost this critical project. 
Achievements such as these, at home and abroad, along with many others 
in the fields of environmental protection, science education, and 
children's health, are a lasting legacy of Dr. Vagelos' commitment to 
improving our world.
  Throughout my years in the Senate, I have often had the advantage of 
calling on Dr. Vagelos' counsel on issues related to health, science, 
and pharmaceutical industry. He has served as a respected adviser to 
leaders throughout the world. Ray Gilmartin, Dr. Vagelos' successor as 
leader of Merck, identified one of the keys to the enormous respect he 
enjoys from leaders of government and industry when he said ``as a 
physician, Dr. Vagelos never lost sight of the end user of Merck's 
products, the patient.''
  On September 28, Merck renamed is Rahway, NJ site, established in 
1900 as the company's first research and manufacturing facility, the P. 
Roy Vagelos Research and Development Center. I can think of no more 
fitting tribute to this native New Jerseyan who, for nearly two 
decades, made this Rahway site the center of a world of healing and 
caring.

                          ____________________