Merck & Co.'s Slogans & Taglines

Merck & Co., Inc. was founded on 1 January 1891 by George Merck in New York City as the American subsidiary of the German Merck Group. Initially distributing fine chemicals, the company was confiscated by the U.S. government during World War I in 1917 and established as an independent entity. In 1925, George W. Merck became president and shifted the company toward research-driven pharmaceutical innovation. The landmark 1933 opening of the Merck Research Laboratories in Rahway, New Jersey, marked its entry into drug development, followed by the 1936 synthesis of vitamin B1. In 1953, the company merged with Sharp & Dohme to form Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), and in 2009 it merged with Schering-Plough. Today, headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, it is known as Merck & Co. in the United States and Canada, and as MSD everywhere else.

The brand's core products are pharmaceutical and healthcare solutions, including prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, and animal health products. Its portfolio spans oncology, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases, immunology, neuroscience, and diabetes care.

From George W. Merck's enduring 1950 philosophy—"We try to remember that medicine is for the patient. We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits"—the brand evolved through slogans such as "Be Well", "Where patients come first", and "Committed to bringing out the best in medicine." Today, Merck embraces the tagline "Inventing for Life", reflecting a journey from a chemical distributor to one of the world's largest research-driven biopharmaceutical companies.