Kenneth Frazier

“Biopharmaceutical research and development efforts have achieved dramatic improvements in global health and longevity, and we are committed to continuing our quest.”

“Your job as a trial attorney is to try to convey to the jury the essence of the people you represent.”

“My job is to make sure that 10 and 15 years from now, people aren't going to say, 'Oh, do you remember Merck?'”

“I think that size is not the key to innovation. Scale doesn't confirm an innovation advantage.”

“My father was born in the year 1900 in South Carolina, and he grew up at a time where being an African-American child in the American South was to be deprived of access to anything close to a reasonable education. He only had three years of formal education, but he was self-taught. He read two newspapers a day.”

“The way we have looked at pricing at Merck is we've always said we want to be responsible, which means we want to optimize profitability and patient access.”

“Institutions are what allow us to have continuity in civilizations.”

“I support tax revenue increases, including the top 2 percent, but only if accompanied by responsible spending limits. The key is balance.”

“Affordability is critical so that patients have access to medicines. At the same time, it's also important that we have the kind of incentives that allow us to do the kinds of studies that we need to do to go after these diseases like Alzheimer's.”

“I am a person who does not subscribe to the hero-CEO school of thought.”

“While a fundamental responsibility of business leaders is to create value for shareholders, I think businesses also exist to deliver value to society.”

“America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal.”

“I've always admired lawyers who use their power to effect social change, and Thurgood Marshall was always a childhood hero of mine.”

“I do worry that as we try to fix this long-term debt and deficit situation that we don't destroy the market incentives for biomedical research. What I fear is the government using its considerable clout to say, 'Here's the price we're setting for your medicines.'”

“My father, to me, was 10 feet tall.”

“I'm the last senior executive who was hired by Roy Vagelos. It's an honor, but it also imposes upon me an obligation not only to think about his legacy but also about this company's legacy.”

“I'm a big believer in institutions.”

“My grandfather on my paternal side, Richard Frazier, was born in the late 1850s and, therefore, was born into slavery but was a sharecropper in South Carolina for his entire life.”