By Peter Loftus
The head of drugmaker Merck & Co. resigned Monday from a
manufacturing-advisory council to the Trump administration in an
apparent protest of the president's failure to quickly condemn the
white supremacists who marched and waged violence in
Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.
Merck issued a statement Monday morning on Twitter from Chairman
and Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier, saying, "America's leaders
must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions
of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the
American ideal that all people are created equal."
"As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel
a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and
extremism," Mr. Frazier said in the statement.
A Merck spokeswoman said the company had no comment beyond Mr.
Frazier's statement.
Almost an hour later, President Donald Trump posted on Twitter:
"Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's
Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG
PRICES!"
Later Monday, Mr. Trump singled out white-nationalist groups by
name for condemnation after stopping short of doing so two days
earlier. Such groups had largely supported his presidential
campaign, and Mr. Trump was widely criticized on Saturday for
saying there was a display of hatred and violence in
Charlottesville by "many sides."
Other CEOs who made statements on Twitter in response to the
weekend violence included Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The Wall Street chief quoted Abraham
Lincoln in tweeting: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
He added: "Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/
those who bring us together."
Mr. Frazier, who is African-American, was one of 28 business and
union leaders the president named to an advisory council in January
aimed at helping him boost U.S. manufacturing jobs. It has been
known variously as the American Manufacturing Council and the
Manufacturing Jobs Initiative and is led by Dow Chemical Co. CEO
Andrew Liveris.
Mr. Liveris said in a written statement that he condemns the
violence in Charlottesville and that there is no room for hatred,
racism or bigotry at the company. His statement didn't address Mr.
Frazier's resignation from the manufacturing council or his own
status with the group, but he said Dow would continue to support
job-creation policies.
General Electric Co. Chairman Jeff Immelt will remain on the
manufacturing council, according to the company, which issued a
statement saying, "GE has no tolerance for hate, bigotry or racism,
and we strongly condemn the violent extremism in Charlottesville
over the weekend." The statement said, "It is important for GE to
participate in the discussion on how to drive growth and
productivity in the U.S."
Mr. Frazier is the latest CEO to step down from a role advising
the White House. In June, Elon Musk of Tesla Inc. and Robert Iger
of Walt Disney Co. resigned from advisory roles after Mr. Trump
said the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
Mr. Musk tweeted at the time: "Leaving Paris is not good for
America or the world." Mr. Iger said at the time that he was
resigning from the president's business advisory council as "a
matter of principle."
Travis Kalanick, then Uber Technologies Inc.'s CEO, stepped down
from Mr. Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum in February after calls
by users to delete the ride-hailing service's app.
Mr. Frazier, a Merck veteran and its CEO since 2011, has met in
the past with Mr. Trump at the White House, including a gathering
of pharmaceutical CEOs in January when Mr. Trump told them drug
prices were too high.
Their public interactions appeared more cordial before Monday.
At the January meeting, Mr. Frazier shook hands with the president
and told him Merck, based in Kenilworth, N.J., employed thousands
of Americans in manufacturing and research jobs. In February, Mr.
Frazier met with Mr. Trump to discuss possible changes to U.S. tax
and trade policies that Mr. Frazier said would promote U.S.
economic growth.
In July, Mr. Frazier attended a White House event with the
president to announce a new glass-packaging product for drugs that
Corning Inc. co-developed with Merck and Pfizer Inc. "Thank you,
Mr. President, for your leadership. It's an honor to be here at the
White House, and I'm grateful for the administration's continued
support for American innovation and manufacturing," Mr. Frazier
said.
Mr. Frazier, an attorney, is one of two African-American CEOs of
companies in the S&P 500 index and one of four in the Fortune
500, according to the Executive Leadership Council, an organization
that supports increasing the number of black executives.
Merck makes diabetes drug Januvia, cancer treatment Keytruda and
the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil. It is the second-biggest
U.S. drugmaker by annual sales, behind Pfizer.
Shares in the drugmaker were up 0.5% at $62.66 in afternoon
trading Monday.
--Nikki Waller and Tom Gryta contributed to this article
Write to Peter Loftus at peter.loftus@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 14, 2017 14:25 ET (18:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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