Merck Sharpe and Dohme announces director’s retirement

Merck Sharpe and Dohme has announced the retirement of Thomas Shenk from the firm's board of directors.

Dr Shenk, who is Princeton University's Elkins Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and joined the board at Merck in 2001, will leave to focus on the creation of a new company.

According to a statement from the pharmaceutical giant, he is planning to commercialise recent discoveries made at Princeton in the area of antiviral therapeutics. His retirement was effective from February 8th.

Dr Shenk chaired the US university department between 1996 and 2004.

Merck announced its financial results for 2011 earlier this month, reporting year-on-year sales growth of four percent.

The firm posted full-year sales of $48 billion (30.3 billion pounds) and total worldwide sales of $12.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2011, which represented a two percent increase on the corresponding period of 2010.

It also revealed plans to submit five major products for approval between 2012 and 2013.