Through its corporate philanthropy, Merck, the pharmaceutical giant with sizable operations in West Point, helped save millions of people throughout the world from River Blindness, writes Justus R. Hope for The Desert Review.

Dr. Roy Vagelos, who led Merck in the 1980s, discovered that millions of the poorest Africans were being blinded by a parasite.

He knew that a drug made by Merck, Ivermectin, could help prevent this blindness for pennies. However the people being affected by the disease and their governments were too poor to afford it.

So Vagelos offered to do something unthinkable for big corporations. He offered the drug to every person who required it for free for as long as they needed it.

In doing so, he followed the standard set by the company’s founder, George W. Merck.

“We try to never forget that medicine is for the people,” said Merck. “It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we remembered that, they have never failed to appear.”

Following the start of the program, Merck donated more than one billion doses of Ivermectin.  This saved the sight of tens of millions of people and helped eradicate the disease in Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala.

Read more about Merck and river blindness in The Desert Review.