Understanding lung cancer: 5 essential things to know as a patient or caregiver
What to know about one of the most common types of cancer
August 21, 2024
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Lung cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide. In 2022, it was estimated that more than 2.4 million people globally were diagnosed with lung cancer.
Lung cancer is also the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Nearly one-in-five (19%) cancer-related deaths were estimated to result from the disease worldwide in 2022.
Despite how common lung cancer is and its high mortality rates, there are still many misconceptions about the disease. Having accurate information is a critical step in the fight against lung cancer.
Our company is working for these patients and their families by advancing research and fostering greater awareness and understanding of the disease.
Here are five facts about lung cancer that we think patients or caregivers need to know.
01.
Every person with lung cancer deserves compassion and support.
People with lung cancer can face social stigma because they may have smoked. But the truth is, there’s no room for blame. People with lung cancer are worthy of all the compassion and support their families, health care teams and the wider cancer community can provide to help them stand against this disease.
02.
It takes a village to navigate life with lung cancer.
When coping with a lung cancer diagnosis, it’s important to build a circle of support that includes the oncologist, health care teams, family and friends.
Connecting with others can provide a sense of support and comfort to help patients through everything that goes into managing this disease.
03.
There’s no one type of person who develops lung cancer.
Lung cancer strikes both men and women. While it is mostly diagnosed in older people, younger people can develop the disease. In fact, in 2022, more than 312,000 cases of lung cancer were estimated to be diagnosed worldwide among people 54 and younger.
04.
There are multiple risk factors for lung cancer, including some outside our control.
Smoking is the greatest risk factor for developing lung cancer, but there are others as well, including having a family history of the disease and exposure to certain environmental substances. Worldwide, it is estimated that 10-25% of patients with lung cancer have never smoked with even higher proportions based on ethnicity and geographic region.
Environmental risks include:
Exposure to radon gas.
Exposure to occupational carcinogens, such as asbestos.
Exposure to outdoor air pollution, such as second-hand smoke, arsenic, chromium and nickel.
05.
Scientific advances are helping to make an impact in treating lung cancer.
Over the last 20 years, significant strides have been made to improve patient outcomes in the treatment of lung cancer. Key advancements include the development of targeted therapies, the incorporation of biomarker testing into standard practice and the progress of research that may offer promising breakthroughs for patients with difficult-to-treat tumor types.
Letter from our chairman and chief executive officer, Rob Davis
August 16, 2024
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Dear Stakeholders,
For more than a century, we’ve been devoted to innovative scientific discovery, delivering medicines and vaccines to address critical health needs, optimizing the efficiency of our supply chain, increasing diversity in clinical trials, evolving our MSD Manual for medical reference and so much more. Importantly, everything we do is inspired by our purpose — to save and improve the lives of people and animals around the world. By harnessing leading-edge science, we’ve tackled some of the world’s biggest health challenges for generations, and we remain committed to expanding access to life-changing medicines, vaccines and technologies for many more decades to come. Operating our business responsibly and sustainably is at the core of our values and foundational to our ways of working and business operations.
To help propel our purpose, we continue to prioritize our ambitious sustainability goals, which span four key focus areas: 1) Access to Health; 2) Employees; 3) Environmental Sustainability and 4) Ethics & Values.
Over the last year, our concerted focus on innovation, collaboration and delivering significant and sustained stakeholder value has driven remarkable progress and impactful outcomes. To these ends, I’m proud to share the following key accomplishments:
Expanding and enabling access to health
Enabling access to health underpins every action we take and every decision we make. Across our enterprise, we collaborate with global partners and stakeholders to advance our scientific discoveries, expand and enable access to our medicines and vaccines, and implement initiatives that drive health equity. In 2023, we reached more than 550 million people with our medicines and vaccines through commercial channels, clinical trials, voluntary licensing and product donations. These critical efforts include our MECTIZAN® Donation Program, the longest-running disease-specific drug donation effort of its kind, which aims to combat river blindness and lymphatic filariasis and reached approximately 385 million people last year.
In 2023, we also expanded on our 2021 access to health ambition, and now have a new goal to enable 350 million more people to access our medicines and vaccines by 2025. In 2023 alone, our efforts enabled access for 240 million people. Our products were delivered to nearly 80% of countries globally. And through our social investments, including partnerships to advance health equity and other impact initiatives, we reached more than 54 million people in low- and middle-income countries and populations underserved by health care in high-income countries, surpassing our goal of reaching more than 50 million people by 2025.
Developing and rewarding a diverse, inclusive and healthy workforce
We believe the best path to value creation is through our talent, and the variety of backgrounds and ideas they bring are central to the success of our company. Diversity, equity and inclusion is a business imperative. It improves our understanding of our customers, promotes the inclusion of diverse populations in our clinical trials and inspires the innovation that drives our business. We remain committed to actively cultivating a talented, diverse and inclusive workforce that best represents—and can thus best serve—our customers, health care providers and patients.
In 2023, we defined and introduced 15 new enterprise leadership skills, designed to further advance our culture, power organizational and individual performance, and drive value for our stakeholders and communities.
We continue to nurture a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. Women comprise 51% of our global workforce, 50% of our board of directors, and in 2023, our global pay equity study indicated a greater than 99% parity in compensation between female and male employees. Further, in the U.S., for the third year in a row, we have achieved greater than 99% pay equity across race and gender.
Embodying and prioritizing environmental stewardship
We know the global health of people and animals is inextricably linked to the health of the planet. This is why we are committed to playing an active role in mitigating the impacts of climate change. Notably, in 2024, we committed to be net-zero across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, aligned with guidance from the Science Based Targets initiative.
Our environmental sustainability strategy is designed to achieve our objectives by focusing on three critical areas: operational efficiency, designing new products to minimize environmental impact and reducing the impacts in our upstream and downstream value chain. And we have been recognized with six consecutive Green Chemistry Challenge Awards—nine overall—as a result of our ongoing efforts to minimize the footprint of our products. The awards are sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Chemistry Society and recognize new and innovative environmentally conscious chemistry technologies.
Holding ourselves to the highest standards
We operate responsibly every day in every way, and we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards of ethics and values. Our code of conduct is our compass, ensuring we maintain our reputation as a trusted, credible and responsible company. It also encourages employees to speak up and report potential concerns to ensure our ethics and values are reflected in our business operations. We maintain full compliance with all privacy and data regulatory requirements related to active incident monitoring, risk/harm analysis and on-time notification of data breaches.
We are also a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and we align our operations with the Ten Principles of the UNGC to improve communities around the globe.
Additionally, we increased our spend with small and diverse Tier 1 and 2 suppliers from $3.2 billion in 2022 to $3.6 billion in 2023, fostering a healthy, equitable and diverse supply chain.
In 2023, we also added sustainability metrics to our Company Scorecard, which directly correlates to our annual incentive plan. The metrics link the compensation for most employees, including executives, to our performance in driving greater access to health care and employee engagement and inclusion. And I’m pleased to report that, in our inaugural year, we achieved all of our goals for these new sustainability metrics on our Company Scorecard.
Sustaining our momentum
I am very proud of our collective progress and the positive impact we’ve made on the lives of people, animals and communities around the world. In 2023, MSD was named one of the Top 100 Most Sustainable U.S. Companies by Barron’s and one of America’s Most JUST Companies by JUST Capital and CNBC. And notably, we ranked No. 1 in the health sector for both recognitions. This year, we were also recognized on TIME’s inaugural list of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies, ranking No. 28 out of 500 companies. These honors are a testament to our unwavering passion and commitment to saving and improving lives globally.
I remain confident that we can do even more to further advance global health and access, drive diversity, equity and inclusivity, protect the environment and operate responsibly. I’m excited and energized by the possibilities of our science-led strategy, the promise that our short- and long-term efforts present, and the positive, sustainable impacts that we can make today and well into the future.
My sincerest thanks for your continued support as we pursue a healthier and brighter future for all.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a leading cause of certain types of cervical cancer and other cancers in men and women
August 15, 2024
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What is human papillomavirus (HPV)?
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI).
For most people, HPV clears on its own. But for the very few who do not clear the virus, it can cause certain cancers and other diseases in both men and women. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know who will or will not clear the virus.
What cancers and diseases can be caused by HPV?
HPV can cause certain types of:
cervical cancers
anal cancers
vulvar cancers
vaginal cancers
head and neck cancers
genital warts
The impact of HPV-related cancers
~666,000 men and women were diagnosed with certain HPV-related cancers in 2018 worldwide
As of 2022, cervical cancer was the 4th most common cancer in women worldwide
“There are steps people can take to be proactive about their health. Men and women should speak with their health care providers to learn more about the link between HPV and certain cancers and diseases.”
— Mel Kohn, M.D., M.P.H., executive director of medical affairs, MSD
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) movement towards cervical cancer elimination
Important steps have been taken to achieve a world where fewer women are affected by cervical cancer, but more needs to be done.
In 2020, the World Health Assembly adopted the global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem.
To help achieve this goal, the WHO provides guidance and tools to support countries in implementing strategies and addressing challenges associated with cervical cancer prevention.
For more information about HPV, certain related cancers and potential preventive measures, men and women should speak with their health care providers.
MSD’s Q2 2024 results demonstrate strong business momentum and further progress in our diverse pipeline. Our company announced worldwide sales of $16.1 billion, an increase of 7% from Q2 2023.
“Our business is demonstrating strong momentum as we exit the first half of the year,” said Rob Davis, chairman and chief executive officer. “Through excellent scientific, commercial and operational execution, we’re achieving significant milestones for our company and for patients. I am proud of our dedicated teams around the world that are working tirelessly to advance our deep pipeline as we continue delivering innovation that solves unmet medical needs.”
MSD anticipates full-year 2024 worldwide sales to be between $63.4 billion and $64.4 billion.
Our former CEO Dr. Roy Vagelos honored for role in helping China combat hepatitis B
We’re proud of his recognition and our continued commitment to global health
July 16, 2024
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It’s a moment that’s woven into our company’s history, and one that exemplifies our commitment to putting people before profits.
In 1989, when hepatitis B was the largest public health challenge in China, our company shared a manufacturing process to help the Chinese government address this public health need. This cooperation, led by then-CEO Dr. Roy Vagelos, helped millions at a time when they needed it most.
For his role in helping the people of China, Vagelos recently received the first-ever Elimination Champion Legacy Award from the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE), a program of The Task Force for Global Health. Vagelos was honored alongside Professor Zhao Kai, who helped lead China’s participation in the technology transfer.
“Dr. Roy Vagelos and Professor Zhao Kai are fully deserving of the first Legacy Awards as Hepatitis Elimination Champions,” said Dr. John W. Ward, director of the CGHE.
By 2009, China’s vaccination program made possible by this technology transfer prevented over 24 million infections and over 4 million future deaths, according to estimates cited by the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination. Vagelos’ leadership exemplifies our company’s legacy of collaboration and the work we do every day to address some of the world’s most pressing public health challenges.
Prostate cancer: stigma, early screening and support
A prostate cancer survivor and a caregiver and advocate want to inspire more people to talk about the disease
June 26, 2024
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Even after losing his father and grandfather to prostate cancer, Henry H. Washington III, Ph.D., was still shocked by his prostate cancer diagnosis after a routine screening. A retired Army Major and longtime athlete, Washington saw himself as the picture of health.
“After fighting for my country in the military and then to find out I have prostate cancer – how do I deal with that? It was a lot of emotions. I think as men we aren’t allowed to have emotions. We are taught that we need to be strong.”
Henry H. Washington III
Screening for prostate cancer is key in early detection
After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer for men in the U.S. Anyone who was born with a prostate can develop it. About 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed during their lifetime, and Black men are more likely to develop prostate cancer.
In its early stages, prostate cancer can be difficult to identify because there are usually no symptoms.
Routine screening for those who are at risk can help detect prostate cancer early before it has spread. The greatest risk factor is age. Men over the age of 65 have the highest risk. Additional risk factors include inherited gene mutations and a family history of certain cancers.
Speaking out and supporting loved ones with prostate cancer
Courtney Bugler, president and CEO of ZERO Prostate Cancer who herself is a cancer survivor, said she was inspired to take on this role to support her father, who is living with the disease.
“There’s a stigma around prostate cancer and watching my dad made me want to shine a light on something that, quite honestly, I don’t think gets enough attention. After almost 20 years of him supporting me after my own diagnosis, it’s time for me to be there for him.”
Courtney Bugler CEO of ZERO Prostate Cancer
The stigma associated with prostate cancer can be attributed in part to the nature of the disease and its treatment disrupting normal urinary, bowel and sexual function, all of which can impact a patient’s body image and self-esteem. The thought of impaired sexual health, in particular, may even lead men to avoid screening for prostate cancer altogether.
Statistics show there’s still unease around prostate cancer diagnosis
A 2022 study of 200 metastatic prostate cancer patients, conducted by MSD and Cerner Enviza, found:
58% of patients agree there’s a stigma around prostate cancer.
39% didn’t share their feelings about having prostate cancer with loved ones because they felt they needed to “stay strong.”
More than a third felt uncomfortable, embarrassed or vulnerable talking to their loved ones (37%) or their doctor (38%) about emotional challenges.
Now cancer-free for a decade, Washington said he sees helping others as his purpose. He faces the potential unease head-on by educating others about prostate cancer, encouraging men to get checked early and working with men who have been diagnosed.
“Survivorship is not a linear experience; sometimes it’s two steps forward, five steps back,” said Washington. “The support I received from my friends, my support groups, my mother and my family is what gave me strength to educate others about prostate cancer.”
"Finding support and having people beside you who know what you're going through is what will help get you through.”
For more information about prostate cancer and access to helpful resources visit ZERO Prostate Cancer.
Here for Good: A steadfast commitment to health equity
How one colleague’s upbringing and career journey have motivated her to fight inequities around the world
June 10, 2024
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For Priya Agrawal, health equity has been a lifelong concern and a guiding principle in the work she’s done across industries.
As a young girl growing up in central London, Agrawal saw firsthand how inequities even within her own extended family could drastically impact health outcomes.
“I watched my father’s side of the family — who lived in London — live with diabetes, but I watched my mother’s side of the family — who lived in North India — die of diabetes,” Agrawal said. “It took me a while to figure out that it was my father’s family’s access to the National Health Service that made the difference.”
That early insight propelled Agrawal into a career as an obstetrician and gynecologist before moving into public health. Now vice president in charge of international health equity and partnerships, Agrawal first joined our company to help launch MSD for Mothers, a global initiative to help create a world where no woman has to die while giving life. From there, she went on to a variety of roles — from lead of our vaccines and contraceptives business in the U.K. to managing director of South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa cluster to global head of HPV vaccines.
Agrawal’s work — and the passion that fuels it — continues, and she has no plans to stop.
“My purpose in life is to advance health equity. I want to be able to say that I did all I could to ensure more people could both survive and thrive because they had easier access to health.”
How we’re advancing the best internal and external science to progress our pipeline for patients
May 30, 2024
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Drug development is a long and difficult endeavor. It can take more than 10 years to bring a new medicine to market. So how does our company think about developing new medicines and vaccines to help save and improve lives? The answer: through our One Pipeline strategy, where we complement our internal innovation and discovery efforts with the best external science through business development.
“Our One Pipeline strategy enables us to advance breakthrough science, whether it comes from our own labs or from our partners’ labs, and make medicines and vaccines for patients,” said Dr. Dean Li, president, MSD Research Laboratories (MRL). “Every day, we’re pushing scientific boundaries in research. Business development and external partnerships are integral to help drive our internal pipeline and to provide access to assets that are important for our discovery and clinical development groups.”
To achieve that balance, MRL works in lockstep with our business development and licensing (BD&L) team. “I want to emphasize how integrated BD&L is with MRL. This is hand in glove,” said Li.
Business development augments our pipeline
Our BD&L team is committed to securing scientific and commercial collaborations, licensing agreements and acquisitions from discovery to late-stage candidates and new technologies to help build our robust portfolio. We have a legacy of successful collaborations and are among the most active dealmakers in the biopharma industry.
“We match our strong scientific conviction with bold investments in novel, cutting-edge science to advance new options for patients,” said Sunil Patel, senior vice president, head of corporate development and BD&L. “We’re focused on bringing in the best external science to complement our internal efforts to deliver on our purpose and sustain our company for the next 130 years.”
~$50B
Invested towards business development since 2019.
~80
Significant transactions executed annually across technologies, modalities, therapeutic areas and phases of development.
The BD&L team members focused on our pipeline are embedded with scientists across our research network and, in addition to our New Jersey and Pennsylvania sites, they’re strategically located in key epicenters of innovation including Boston, Cambridge, London, South San Francisco, Shanghai and Tokyo. The team searches the globe for cutting-edge science and works alongside our research team to evaluate opportunities built on strong scientific principles, regardless of location or origin.
Creating a sustainable innovation engine
As part of our One Pipeline strategy, we ensure a smooth transition when bringing in external science and leverage our clinical development and manufacturing expertise to advance each program with speed and rigor. This strategy is helping to build and maintain the flow of novel candidates through clinical development to patients, enabling long-term, sustainable growth for our company.
“Strategic business development focused on the best external science remains an important priority for our company. We’ve demonstrated that we can leverage our deep discovery prowess to identify important acquisition targets and then add significant value through our powerful clinical research engine, our regulatory expertise and our commercial scale, which together can serve to accelerate development and enable broad global access to important medical discoveries for patients in need,” said Rob Davis, chairman and chief executive officer.
Pipeline
We’re focused on discovering new medicines and vaccines for today and the future. View our pipeline.
Business development and licensing
We work with many partners, from early-stage science to clinical-stage programs, to deliver life-changing therapies.
Innovation
Vaccine inventors, creators and innovators
Dr. Maurice Hilleman was among pioneering scientists who made strides in vaccine history and the fight against infectious disease
May 8, 2024
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Dr. Maurice Hilleman, who led our department of virus and cell biology from 1957 to 1984.
When were vaccines invented?
The story of modern day vaccines began in 1796 when Dr. Edward Jenner inoculated 9-year-old James Phipps with cowpox as a way to protect him from smallpox. The term ‘vaccine’ is later coined, taken from the Latin word for cow, vacca. Smallpox was the first disease people tried to prevent by intentionally inoculating themselves with infected matter.
Dr. Edward Jenner inoculating 9-year-old James Phipps with cowpox.
Eight decades after Jenner published his findings, Louis Pasteur developed the first live attenuated rabies vaccine. Attenuation is a process that weakens the bacteria or virus in a vaccine so it’s less likely to cause disease, while still triggering an immune response similar to the natural infection. During the mid- to late-20th century, advances in basic and clinical research made it possible for scientists to develop vaccines to help protect against both bacterial and viral diseases.
Dr. Maurice Hilleman’s contribution to vaccine development
The names Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin have become synonymous with their inventions and developments around the polio vaccine, and the giant strides they made in the fight against viral diseases. Although these are some of the most famous names in vaccine research, MSD has a legacy of vaccine pioneers, too. Dr. Maurice Hilleman, who led MSD’s department of virus and cell biology from 1957 to 1984, also belonged to that distinguished group. Credited with helping to develop more than 40 experimental and licensed human and animal vaccines, Hilleman’s passionate commitment continues to inspire scientists in medical research laboratories to this day.
Hilleman was born and raised on a farm in Montana. It was a hard life, but a farm background was a great foundation for his later work.
“When you’re brought up on a farm, you have a lot of general knowledge,” he said. After graduating from the University of Chicago with a doctorate in microbiology and chemistry, Hilleman chose to work at a pharmaceutical company instead of academia.
Despite his many accomplishments, including helping to develop more than 40 human and animal vaccines, Hilleman’s name is virtually unknown by the general public and press. Yet his impact on public health is undeniable.
“His commitment was to make something useful and convert it to clinical use. Maurice’s genius was in developing vaccines, reliably reproducing them, and he was in charge of all pharmaceutical facets from research to the marketplace.”
Dr. Paul Offit Director of the Vaccine Education Center, professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Hilleman’s biographer
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan awarded Hilleman the National Medal of Science, and in 1997, he was honored with the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award. Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, called Hilleman “one of the true giants of science, medicine and public health in the 20th century.”
MSD and its legacy companies have been working to discover and develop vaccines for more than a century
May 8, 2024
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“An epidemic of diphtheria is almost inevitable here. Stop. I am in urgent need of one million units of diphtheria antitoxin. Stop. Mail is only form of transportation. Stop.”
Dr. Curtis Welch
This was the desperate radio telegram in January 1925 from Dr. Curtis Welch in Nome, Alaska, to all the major Alaska towns, to territorial governor Scott Bone in Juneau, and to the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington, D.C. Diphtheria was spreading through the icebound community. Children had already died, and the local supply of diphtheria antitoxin had expired the previous summer.
Known as the “Great Race of Mercy,” it’s an iconic story of human compassion.
Weather prevented delivery by air, so relay teams of sled dogs and their mushers raced against the clock to deliver 300,000 units of antitoxin, which was produced by MSD legacy company H.K. Mulford. They completed the 674-mile journey over what later became known as the Iditarod Trail in a record-breaking five days and seven hours despite whiteout conditions and temperatures of 50 degrees below zero.
674 miles
5 days
300,000 units
Over 130 years of vaccine leadership
In 1895, the H.K. Mulford Company began marketing the first commercially available diphtheria antitoxin in the U.S., the very medication that helped avert the diphtheria epidemic in Nome. Today, we have a significant presence in vaccine discovery, development and distribution in both human and animal health.
The vaccine pioneers
MSD’s Dr. Maurice Hilleman belongs to a distinguished group of vaccine pioneers — including Edward Jenner, Louis Pasteur, Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. Hilleman is credited with helping to develop more than 40 vaccines and his impact on public health is undeniable.
We’re working with national health ministries and non-government agencies to help write new chapters in the public health success story through collaborations, donation programs, and technology transfer agreements.
