Merck Announces Executive Appointments to NewCo; Retains Dividend for the Year 2020
February 05, 2020 at 06:45 am EST
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Merck announced its intention to spin-off products from its Women's Health, trusted Legacy Brands, and Biosimilars businesses into a new, yet-to-be-named, independent, publicly traded company. Kevin Ali, who brings three decades of pharmaceutical commercial experience from within Merck, will be named chief executive officer of NewCo. Ali has led Merck's enterprise portfolio strategy initiative, reporting to Frazier, for the past year. Prior to this, Ali served in many leadership roles within Merck, including president, MSD International; president, Emerging Markets; senior vice president in charge of the Bone, Respiratory, Immunology and Dermatology franchise; managing director of Germany and managing director of Turkey. Carrie Cox will be named NewCo's Chairman of the Board of Directors. Cox has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry and deep expertise in women's health, formerly serving as chairman of Array BioPharma Inc., CEO and chairman of Humacyte Inc., president of Global Pharmaceuticals at Schering-Plough Corporation (acquired by Merck in 2009), executive vice president of Pharmacia Corporation and vice president of Women's Health Care at Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Inc.
Merck will retain its current 2020 dividend of $2.44 per share and anticipates future increases with the goal of achieving a 47% to 50% payout ratio over time.
Merck & Co., Inc. specializes in the development, production, and marketing of therapeutic products and vaccines sold under prescription. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- sale of pharmaceutical products (69.7%): for treating hypertension, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, respiratory, bacterial and fungal, ophthalmologic, and urological diseases, acute migraine, hair loss in men, etc.;
- sale of vaccines (18%);
- sale of animal health products (9.4%);
- other (2.9%).
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: the United States (45.9%), Europe/Middle East/Africa (24.5%), China (8.8%), Japan (6.1%), Asia/Pacific (6.1%), Latin America (4.3%) and other (4.3%).