On October 21, 1987, Merck CEO Roy Vagelos stood up and told the world his company would give away ivermectin for free, ...

On October 21, 1987, Merck CEO Roy Vagelos stood up and told the world his company would give away ivermectin for free, to anyone who needed it, for as long as they needed it. No price tag. No expiration date on the commitment. Just a decision that changed the lives of millions. River blindness, caused by a parasitic worm spread through blackfly bites, starts with unbearable itching and skin lesions and ends, for many, in complete blindness. At the time of Vagelos's announcement, the drug that could stop it, ivermectin, branded as Mectizan, already existed. The problem was that the communities most devastated by the disease, scattered across remote parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, had no way to pay for it. Vagelos was the son of Greek immigrants who settled in New Jersey and ran a luncheonette. He grew up working in that restaurant, serving customers who, as it happened, worked at the Merck plant nearby. He went on to study medicine and biochemistry, led Merck's research division, and became CEO in 1985. Ivermectin itself was the result of work by Japanese microbiologist Satoshi Omura and Merck researcher William Campbell, who identified the compounds that kill the larvae responsible for the disease. Vagelos's role was the decision that came after the science: to make sure the drug actually reached the people who needed it. Merck did not act alone. The Mectizan Donation Program pulled in governments, international organizations, NGOs, and local health workers to handle distribution on the ground. That program has now been running for nearly four decades, making it one of the longest drug donation programs in history. The Greek-American kid from behind the counter of a New Jersey diner grew up to run one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, and used that position to give away one of its most important drugs without limit. #GreekAmerican #GlobalHealth #History