Month: April 2023

RAHWAY, N.J., April 4, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been named one of Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable U.S. Companies for the third consecutive year, ranking No. 1 in the pharmaceutical industry and advancing 38 spots in the overall rankings from last year—from No. 67 overall in 2022 to No. 29 overall in 2023.

“At Merck, we are committed to operating responsibly and moving with urgency to deliver value for patients, society and all of our stakeholders,” said Carmen Villar, vice president of Social Business Innovation for Merck. “We are pleased to see the impact of our work being recognized, and we will continue to make strides toward building a healthier, safer and more sustainable world.”

Earlier this year, Merck was also recognized as an industry leader among America’s Most JUST Companies by JUST Capital and CNBC, and America’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek and Statista.

Barron’s worked with Calvert Research and Management (Calvert), a leader in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing to build its list of the most sustainable U.S. companies. Starting with 1,000 of the largest publicly traded companies by market value, Calvert narrowed the list to 100 by looking at more than 230 ESG performance indicators from seven rating companies, including Institutional Shareholder Services, MSCI and Sustainalytics.

Learn more about Merck’s ESG goals and progress at merck.com/company-overview/esg.

About Merck

At Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than 130 years, we have brought hope to humanity through the development of important medicines and vaccines. We aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world – and today, we are at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions that advance the prevention and treatment of diseases in people and animals. We foster a diverse and inclusive global workforce and operate responsibly every day to enable a safe, sustainable and healthy future for all people and communities. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. 

Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA

This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of the global outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19); the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 and the company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s Internet site (www.sec.gov).

Originally published on DICK’s Sporting Goods Sideline Report

While most people spent St. Patrick’s Day weekend watching parades or drinking green beer, Laurie “Lulu” Searles spent it trekking 100 miles through freezing temperatures and snow squalls.

Lulu, a guide at one of our Public Lands stores, recently finished the Rabid Raccoon 100 ultra-marathon at Raccoon Creek State Park in Hookstown, Pennsylvania.

Lulu’s love for sports and the outdoors began when she was just two-years-old, but she only started running ten years ago when her best friend, Sarah Sherman, asked her to train for a race with her. Since then, Lulu has done half and full marathons, 24-hour obstacle races, Obstacle Course World Championships and several 50-mile trail races, but her inspiration to run 100 miles did not come until years later.

On March 27, 2019, Lulu had brain surgery to remove a benign tumor sitting on her cochlear and vestibular nerves, which are responsible for hearing and balance respectively. Doctors removed the tumor but severed the nerves, leaving her completely deaf in her left ear and without balance on her left side. When she woke up from surgery, the room was spinning.

“I got super scared that I wouldn’t be able to do what I love, which is just being outside and doing crazy events,” Lulu said.

While in vestibular therapy, Lulu gave her therapist a list of all the things she wanted to continue to do, from biking and swimming to paddleboarding and running. Running proved to be the most difficult.

“I asked my therapist why are other things easier? And she said because your head’s not bobbing up and down.”

Instead of hanging up her running shoes, Lulu decided to lace them up tighter.

“I started looking for bigger things just to see what I could push myself to do,” Lulu said. That’s when she set her sights on a 100-mile race.

Lulu signed up for the Oil Creek 100 in Titusville, Pennsylvania. She trained with her service dog, Molly. Something Lulu and her team didn’t plan for, though, was running in the dark at the beginning of the race.

“Running in the dark is like another barrier,” Lulu said. “I didn’t really think about it being dark at the start until the start line.”

The race started before sunrise. Less than three miles in, Lulu fell.

“My vision became blurry in my left eye,” she said. “As the race kept going, my vision kept getting worse and worse and worse.”

Lulu kept going despite the blurry vision and was on pace to complete the race, but she missed the cut off at mile 75. After the race, Lulu learned the fall caused a hole behind her retina, which healed itself in time.

Determined to complete 100 miles, Lulu signed up for the Rabid Raccoon 100. This time she got permission to have pacers run with her in the dark, one of whom was her Public Lands Assistant Store Manager Sarah Brown.

“When Lulu called me two weeks before her race and asked me to be a pacer, I had zero hesitation to run six miles with her,” said Sarah. “Then the night before she texted me saying that it would be 11 miles. Again, without hesitation, I said yes! Let’s get you this 100!”

While Lulu was prepared to run in the dark, she was not expecting to run in brutal winter weather in mid-March.

“As I was watching the temperatures leading up to the race, I was like you’ve got to be kidding me,” Lulu said. “The course started turning into ice 24 hours into the race.”

The dangerous, slick conditions caused Lulu to fall more frequently, so she had to slow her pace on the trail. She also lost more time than expected at aid stations throughout the course. Instead of quick two-minute stops, Lulu said some lasted more than 15 minutes for her to eat and change into dry, warm clothes and shoes.

“But you get back up and you keep going,” Lulu said. “You have to keep moving forward.”

Around mile 83, Lulu realized once again she would miss a cut off, but this time, she wasn’t stopping.

“I said to my pacer if I get cut off, they can take my bib, but I’m going to keep going,” Lulu said. “We’re doing 100 miles today.”

Lulu’s Full Psych Adventure teammates talked to race organizers. They encouraged her to finish all 100 miles.

“We were just really impressed to see the determination and toughness of her to finish the whole distance,” said Andrew Mascio of Wolf Creek Race Management.

After 37 hours and 49 minutes, Lulu crossed that finish line with her crew cheering her on.

“It gave me chills to watch her cross her finish line,” said Sarah.

Despite not finishing in the 36-hour time limit, Lulu was marked as an official finisher.

“She was marked as an official finisher because she did finish. She ran all 100,” Andrew said.

So, what comes after a 100-mile ultra-marathon? Lulu said she has no idea.

“We try not to just jump into the next thing,” she said. “It needs to really mean something.”

In the meantime, Lulu plans to keep running. She is signed up for the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Half-Marathon on May 7, and she’s hoping for no snow squalls.

To learn more about our company’s commitments and efforts, see our newly launched DE&I website

The National Carbon Capture Center is finding breakthroughs in next-generation carbon management technologies. Managed and operated by Southern Company, the world-class facility works with innovators from around the world to accelerate the development and deployment of technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and industrial sources – and to promote carbon conversion and direct air capture solutions. As a neutral test site, the NCCC evaluates emerging technologies under real-world operating conditions and propels them closer toward commercialization.