Leading global healthcare company Merck & Co, inc., Kenilworth, NJ, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, has been named to Fortune’s 2022 Change the World list. The annual international ranking recognizes companies that have had a positive social impact through activities that are part of their core business strategy. MSD was selected for its work in expanding global access to the company’s vaccines that help protect populations against human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes certain cancers, especially among women.
Andreas Riedel, President and Managing Director of MSD in the Philippines, says, “As a subsidiary of MSD, we are honored to be acknowledged for our efforts toward making our HPV vaccines available and accessible despite the pandemic and across diverse geographic and cultural contexts.” This is the third time the company has been on the Change the World list in the last five years.
Fortune announces the 2022 Fortune Change the World list of companies that are doing well by doing good.
Tackling a Deadly but Preventable Cancer
As Filipinos continue to hurdle the effects and challenges brought on by the coronavirus crisis, including non-COVID illnesses, MSD in the Philippines persists in saving and improving the lives of patients and populations through expanding awareness about HPV-related diseases and cancers, such as cervical cancer, of which nearly all cases are attributed to HPV.
In the Philippines, cervical cancer currently ranks as the 2nd most common cancer among women in 2018. Besides vaccination, cervical cancer screening is another key component in mitigating and controlling the effects of cervical cancer.
As part of its local efforts, MSD launched the advocacy campaign #TimeToTalkAboutHPV to bring focus and open discussions about HPV with the goal of helping eradicate cervical cancer in the Philippines. The campaign promotes urgent public education and communication to remove the stigma surrounding HPV and to emphasize the need to prevent HPV-related diseases and cancers, like cervical cancer, which may cause physical, emotional, and economic burdens for the patient down the road.
Riedel explains, “Access to accurate information is critical in helping reduce the risk of mortality from a vaccine-preventable disease like cervical cancer. The goal is to encourage vaccine confidence and full immunization before females are even exposed to the virus.”
Intervention Strategies
Sustained action against HPV necessitates multistakeholder partnerships to be truly impactful, especially in resource-challenged locations like the Philippines. MSD believes that a healthier citizenry can result from collaborative campaigns that promote an approach that considers the entire life course of the individual.
Within this framework are community-level initiatives such as the multistakeholder campaign Sa Aking Paglaki, Walang HPV, which promotes the school-based immunization (SBI) program among adolescents in public schools, resulting in increased understanding of the disease and better vaccination coverage rates. This serves as a strong example of the importance of collaboration between local government units, the government’s health and education departments, and the private sector to improve the health and wellness of Filipinos across the archipelago.
“Now that families are preparing for their children to return to face-to-face classes, there is a window of opportunity to raise awareness among parents and other stakeholders of the importance of vaccination to help protect adolescents from vaccine-preventable diseases now and in the future,” Riedel continues.
These increased efforts by MSD in the Philippines against HPV and HPV-related diseases support the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global strategy to eradicate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2030. According to the cervical cancer elimination initiative, all countries must accomplish the following targets: 90% of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15; 70% of women screened for cervical cancer using a high-performance test by the age of 35 and again by the age of 45, and; 90% of women with pre-cancer treated with 90% of women with invasive cancer managed.
Community Health and Resilience
In 2018, MSD was honored on Fortune’s Change the World list for its leadership in the fight against Ebola, and in 2020 for its impact investing program. Fortune selects companies all over the world for this honor based on a set of criteria, including the measurable social impact of their work to meet unmet social needs, the links between this work and successful business results, the degree of innovation demonstrated, and integration of their socially beneficial work into their larger corporate identity.
Looking back through MSD’s over 25 years of operating responsibly and developing life-saving vaccines and medicines in the Philippines, Riedel recommits to the organization’s aim of creating value for society. “The pandemic has made all the more compelling the need to advocate community health and resilience. We know that much more needs to be done to advance health equity so that the most vulnerable patients can be served and saved. With the Change the World recognition, our team in the Philippines is strengthened in pursuing new ways to bring our medicines and vaccines to people and communities everywhere.”
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