Merck

This afternoon we went to Merck, a drug research and development company. This is a 26 billion dollar company that specializes in all different kinds of drugs. It is one of two vaccine companies in the world. The company and more specifically, a group of chemists and biologists have been working on the AIDS epidemic since it first surfaced. They use three steps in order to make sure a drug is acceptable and safe. First, they administer it in tiny amounts to the target group to see if there are any negatives such as side effects. Second, the drug is given to a smaller target group in larger doses to see if it cures the illness. Lastly, it is given to a large population of the target group to get statistics and make sure it is safe. We toured the chemistry labs and the biology labs. Merck is a fascinating company that everyone in our group enjoyed, it was a great experience.