Merck has won the prestigious ‘Overall Excellence’ award by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)- Institute of Logistics SCALE Awards 2020. These awards were instituted by the CII to honour companies focused on growth through innovation and optimisation.

This award recognises the work in sustainability, significant technical skills upgrade and production excellence related to the delivery of scale-up of products used by manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines. The Merck team was chosen among a long list of other multi-national companies, big pharmaceutical and chemical companies in India.

Merck’s sustainability improvements implemented in 2020 resulted in around two lakh litres of water saved as well as improved distribution and use of treated water on site. The company plans to increase its solar energy use and implement additional energy methods in the coming years.

The award also recognised the company’s India research and development team for manufacturing a key compound used in COVID-19 RT-PCR testing within just seven weeks. The team was able to secure supplies during a country lockdown while addressing stabilisation and scalability of the process.

“This recognition is the result of the collaboration and effective implementation between the different teams who have taken up responsibility of high-quality delivery in these challenging times,” said Prabhat Verma, Head, Integrated Supply Chain Operations, Merck India.