Former Chairman, Regeneron
Search every verified Roy Vagelos interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Roy Vagelos, former CEO and chairman of Merck and former chairman of Regeneron, has continued to speak publicly about his career and the pharmaceutical industry. In a September 2024 interview, he discussed Merck's decision in 1987 to donate ivermectin free of charge to treat river blindness, stating that the company made the drug available to anyone in the world for as long as it was required. He also described a program in which Merck trained Chinese scientists and engineers to manufacture a recombinant hepatitis B vaccine, with the company making no profit from the effort. Vagelos has also commented on drug pricing, saying in a 2017 forum that he is not opposed to high prices for drugs that provide significant value, such as a hepatitis C cure, but criticized price increases after launch, citing Gleevec's rise from $26,000 to $146,000. He has advocated for transparency in pricing and for price increases to be tied to inflation. Vagelos has also reflected on his approach to drug discovery, emphasizing the importance of understanding basic science and disease mechanisms. In a 2020 fireside chat, he said that scientific leaders should find intersections where new science reveals something about a disease and technology exists to affect that molecule. He noted that during his tenure at Merck, he was closely involved with research even as CEO, and that the company's decision to stop clinical studies of lovastatin for two years after a rumor of tumors in animals was driven by a commitment to patient safety. Vagelos has also discussed the role of financial incentives in the industry, stating in a 2020 interview that while profit is important, the industry must be careful not to reduce pricing to a point where people lose interest in drug development.
“Mer made the decision in 1987 and announced that they would contribute the drug free to anyone in the world for as long as it was required to make sure they did not become blind.”
“We finally landed on the idea of training Chinese scientists and engineers to make the vaccine. They came and spent months in the Mer facilities to learn how to make the vaccine which they did in 1994 started manufacturing the vaccine in China that was a Mer vaccine no royalty no cost to them. Mer made not a penny of p...”
“We support scholarships to support the students who have financial needs can come to Columbia Medical School and they will have all expenses paid if they have financial need tuition living expenses everything so our students graduate from medical school with no debt at all.”
“When faced with that Merck made the decision in 1987 and announced that they would contribute the drug free to anyone in the world for as long as it was required to make sure they do not become blind.”
“We finally landed on the idea of training Chinese scientists and engineers to make the vaccine; they came and spent months in the Merck facilities to learn how to make the vaccine, and in 1994 started manufacturing the vaccine in China — that was a Merck vaccine at no cost to them; Merck made not a penny of profit.”
“We met on the Monday morning ... we had a press conference in Washington and announced ... that the company would make that drug available to anyone in the world for as long as it was required.”
“A rumor that the compound caused tumors in animals ... caused us to stop all clinical studies that day, because we were not going to have or put any humans to any risk of potentially getting cancer.”
“The reason that New Jersey does so well is that they have much research and development by pharmaceutical biotech companies and they'll take one disease after another and good luck to the Future.”
“I'm delighted to have spent most of my career in New Jersey. New Jersey is the home of the pharmaceutical industry in this country. It was before and it is today. Research that's done in the state in both pharmaceutical and biotech companies in this state are very important for correction of problems in health and disc...”
“Merck decided to contribute the drug free to anyone who needed it anywhere in the world. By 2015 Merck was contributing free treating 250 million people per year and the objective to eradicate river blindness globally. That's the kind of thing a company like Merck can do.”
“This biopharmaceutical industry has brought about incredible improvement in health of people in the last 40 or 50 years — done by a collaboration between people who do basic research at universities supported entirely by government and philanthropy, and then industry steps in to make drugs.”
“Twenty years ago the public had an enormously positive reaction to the biopharmaceutical industry; over the last 20 years its reputation has gone into the dust — partly because of episodes like the Mylan EpiPen pricing huge increases.”
“Avastin was introduced for metastatic colorectal cancer and produced an average improvement in life of three to four months while the price was fifty thousand dollars — Avastin became a multi-billion dollar product that put a floor on cancer biotech drug prices; anything better had to be a multiple of that.”
“I've been accused of being opposed to high price drugs and that's inaccurate — for example, a hepatitis C drug launched at over $80,000 but cures more than 95% of patients, which I call a bargain; likewise the HIV triple combination returning people to productive lives is worth $25–30,000 a year.”
“Another thing that's happened is increases in prices after launch — Merck in the early '90s agreed to limit price increases to no faster than CPI and every major company followed for a while, but more recently we have jaw-dropping examples like Gleevec, which launched at $26,000 and is now $146,000.”
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P. Roy Vagelos, M.D., is retired chairman and CEO of Merck & Co., Inc. He received an A.B. in 1950 from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.D. in 1954 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Following a residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he joined the National Institutes of Health from 1956 to 1966. In 1966, he became chairman of the Department of Biological Chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In 1975 Dr. Vagelos left academia for industry to head Merck’s Research Laboratories and then became the company’s CEO and Chairman in 1985, servin…
Danny DeVito is back as host for the 14th annual New Jersey Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. The star-studded virtual event will feature special appearances by Governor Phil Murphy, First Lady Tammy Snyder-Murphy, Jon Bon Jovi, and Melba Moore. This year’s class highlights New Jersey’s vast talent and includes award-winning comedian Chelsea Handler, legendary Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, former New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes, US Women’s National Soccer Team star and three-time Olympian Heather O’Reilly and former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski.
With: • P. Roy Vagelos, MD, Chairman of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Merck ...
... want to express my gratitude for the award and the particular pleasure it gives me to have my name right next to roy vagelos and ...
Fireside Chat Dr. Roy Vagelos, Chairman of the Board, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Moderator: Dr. Mathai Mammen, Global ...
Merck is one of the greatest drug companies ever. With one of the best selling medicines in the world the company can trace its ...
Dr. Roy Vagelos ‘54PS discusses his perspective on the current COVID-19 situation given his experiences leading Merck through various crises throughout his long-storied tenure at the company. We review his assessment of progress to date and his get his take on where we go from here. This discussion is moderated by Bunny Ellerin, Director of The Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program at Columbia Business School.
On November 14, 2018, Dr. P. Roy Vagelos P&S ’54 received the Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 for his remarkable contributions to solving major health problems in China and Africa from the Shenzhen World Health Foundation at the first Xiong’An International Health Forum in Hebei, China.
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