Longtime Chairman Ken Frazier plans to leave Merck’s board, handing the job to his successor as chief executive, Rob Davis
& Co. shuffled leadership of the drugmaker’s board of directors, naming Chief Executive Rob Davis as chairman to succeed Ken Frazier.last year, will become chairman on Dec. 1, the company said Wednesday.
The moves mean Mr. Frazier, who retired as chief executive last year, steps away from the company that he had run for a decade. Mr. Frazier served as chairman of the 14-member board since 2011. “I’ve got big shoes to fill following Ken,” Mr. Davis said in an interview. Mr. Frazier is leaving, Mr. Davis said, with Merck’s business performing well and pipeline of experimental drugs advancing.
Mr. Davis joined Merck as chief financial officer in 2014. He took the helm of the Rahway, N.J., company as it was seeking new sources of sales because its top-selling drug, cancer immunotherapy Keytruda, is expected to lose patent protection by the end of 2028.