Information for Merck Shareholders Regarding our 2017 Shareholder Proposal

April 21, 2017 // Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management has published a letter to shareholders of Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) calling for support of our Product Safety and Quality shareholder proposal on the company’s 2017 proxy. The letter provides an overview of the importance of the issue as well why we believe shareholders should vote in favor of this proposal. The proposal asks the company to analyze governance improvements the Board could take to strengthen the Board’s oversight of product manufacturing safety and quality.
An October 2016, PWC survey reported that 85% of board members in the pharma/life sciences industry feel that regulatory compliance risks pose the greatest oversight challenged to their boards. [1] We believe the Board should make sure it is going above and beyond to demonstrate its command of manufacturing product quality and safety oversight.
Trillium filed a similar proposal at medical device manufacturing company, Zimmer Biomet Holdings (NYSE:ZBH), which was successfully withdrawn following the company’s commitment to add explicit oversight of product safety and quality to the charter of the existing Research, Innovation, and Technology Committee of the Board.
Read the letter here.

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For more information: Caroline White, Communications Manager, cwhite@trilliuminvest.com
The information provided in this material should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities mentioned. It should not be assumed that investments in such securities have been or will be profitable. The securities mentioned have been selected by the authors on an objective basis to illustrate views expressed in the commentary and do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for advisory clients. A complete list of companies that are on Trillium’s ‘Buy List’ is available on request. The information contained herein has been prepared from sources believed reliable but is not guaranteed by us as to its timeliness or accuracy, and is not a complete summary or statement of all available data. This piece is for informational purposes and should not be construed as a research report.
[1] http://www.pwc.com/us/en/corporate-governance/annual-corporate-directors-survey/board-composition-and-diversity.html