MRK Merck and Co Inc

By Peter Loftus 

The head of U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co. has resigned from a manufacturing advisory council to the Trump administration in an apparent protest of the president's failure to condemn in stronger terms 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, Mr. 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!"

Mr. Trump is facing pressure to break with white-nationalist groups that largely supported his presidential campaign, after he said in response to the Charlottesville events that there was a display of hatred and violence by "many sides."

Mr. Frazier 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.

A Dow Chemical representative couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

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 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, also has met with Mr. Trump at the White House, including a meeting of pharmaceutical CEOs in January when Mr. Trump told them drug prices were too high.

Write to Peter Loftus at peter.loftus@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 14, 2017 10:05 ET (14:05 GMT)

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