Mother Merck

In an era of temps and contract workers, of 401 (k)s instead of pensions, Merck is the classic paternalistic company. Mother Merck works her employees ragged, expects long hours and utter loyalty, checks everything to the tiniest molecule, grants a large degree of freedom, pours on the perks—and as a result, has always attracted some of the most brilliant and egotistical people in the business. 

This material Is purified by recrystallization from ethyl acetate acetone 2 1 (v v) to give a first crop (6.8 g), and by flash chromatography of the residue from the mother liquor, using 150 g of 230-400 mesh silica gel (Merck), a 40-mm diameter column, and elution with 10 1 (v v) ethyl acetate methanol. A fast moving orange band and a slower moving lemon-yellow band can be clearly seen on the column. The lemon-yellow hand is collected from the column and evaporation gives a second crop (1.4 g) of comparably pure material. The total yield of the pale yellow isoquinoline is 8.2 g (86t), mp 135-137°C (Note 10). 

Papaverine, C20H21O4N. This alkaloid, first obtained by Merck, occurs in the mixture precipitated by ammonia from the mother liquors of opium extract from which morphine and codeine have been separated in Gregory s process, and methods for its isolation from this mixture have been published by Hesse and others. The alkaloid may be purified by conversion into the acid oxalate, B. H2C2O4, m.p. 196° or 201-5-202°, which is nearly insoluble in alcohol. 

Pilocarpidine, CiqHiiOjNj. This alkaloid was obtained by Harnack from P. Jaborandi, and later by Merck from the mother liquors from crystallisation of pilocarpine nitrate. It does not occur in the leaves of P. microphyllus (Jowett, ). The free base is a viscid oil, [a]n + 81-3° (less in presence of alkali). The salts crystallise well the nitrate, B. HNO3, in colourless prisms, m.p. 137°, - -73-2°. The aurichloride, unlike... 

Esterification of 8-oxo-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-2-naphthoic acid (285 g, 1.5 mol) was achieved by refluxing its soln in MeOH (2.8 L) containing coned H2S04 (50 g). After 8h, the solvent was removed and afforded crude, partially solid, dark-colored ester, which was decolorized in CH2Cl2/hexane on charcoal and further purified by crystallization and liquid chromatography of the mother liquor (Merck 60 silica gel, CH2Cl2/hexane 1 1) yield 280.7 g (92%) mp 76-77°C. 

Evaporation of the mother liquors and flash column chromatography (350 mL of silica gel column height 28 cm eluent 70% ethyl acetate-hexanes, fraction size, 30 nL), give additional (1.87 g) product which was eluted with fractions 25-36 total yield 15.69 g, 60%. (Silica gel, Kieselgel 60 E. Merck AG, Darmstadt, Germany.)... 

Taking advantage of the ready availability of racemic ibuprofen, the resolution approach for production of (S)-(+)-ibuprofen becomes an attractive alternative. Merck s resolution process involves the formation of a diastereomeric salt of ibuprofen with (S)-lysine, an inexpensive and readily available natural amino acid.45 The racemic ibuprofen is mixed with 1.0 equivalent of (5)-lysine in aqueous ethanol. The slurry is agitated to allow full dissolution. The supernatant, which is a supersaturated solution of ibuprofen-lysine salt, is separated from the solid and seeded with (.S )-ibuprofcn-(.S )-lysine to induce crystallization. The precipitated solid is collected by filtration, and the mother liquor is recycled to the slurry of racemic ibuprofen and (S)-lysine. This process is continued until essentially all (S)-ibuprofen in the original slurry is recovered, resulting in the... 

This material is purified by recrystallization from ethyl acetate acetone 2 1 (v v) to give a first crop (6.8 g), and by flash chromatography3 of the residue from the mother liquor, using 150 g of 230-400 mesh silica gel (Merck), a 40-mm diameter column, and elution with 10 1 (v v) ethyl... 

By the mid-1980s, Merck was both the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mother Teresa of American businesses, journalist Barry Werth wrote in The Billion-Dollar Molecule, his 1994 book about the founding of a biotech company by a group of ex-Merck scientists. ... 

In the late 1990s, Merck arranged special Mother s Day binges in florist shops, where doctors could pick out flower arrangements. Merck would pay, but the doctor couldn t get away without a chat with a detail rep. 

In May 2001, reporter Annie Finnigan spent a week at Rahway and Whitehouse Station to profile the company for Working Mother. Asked to sum up the atmosphere in a phrase, she promptly replies hard-working. Merck is a place where people work really hard, they expect a lot of themselves, and the company expects a lot, too, she explains. Not that the atmosphere is frenzied. It looks very orderly and calm. A well-oiled machine. But there s a sense that there s a lot of work that has to be done. More than half the employees in a recent company survey, she reported, called their workload excessive. 

Mother , listing that year, 26 percent of all executives and 35 percent of the top earners at Merck were women, and Lewent came in 21st in Fortune , ranking of the 50 most powerful American businesswomen.(However, she was beaten out by Pfizer executive vice president Karen L. Katen, number 7.)... 

Artemisin. 3a,5,5a,9b-Tetrahydro-4-hydroxy-3,5a, 9.trimethylnaphlho[l, 2-bffu ran-2,8(3H,4H l-dione 6a,8ct-dihydroxy-3-oxoeudesma-l,4-dien-12-oie acid 12,6-lactone 8-hydroxysantonin. C jH S04 mol wt 262.29, C 68.68%, H 6.92%, O 24.40%. From the closed, unexpanded flower heads of several Artemisia spp, especially Artemisia maritima L., and A. clna Berg., Compositae ( wormseed ). Found in the mother liquors from the extraction of santonin. Isoln E. Merck, Merck s Jahresber. 1894, 3 Chem. Zentr. 1895, I, 436. Structure Sumi. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 80, 4869 (1958) Cocker, McMurry, Tetrahedron 8, l8l (1960). Stereochemistry Bolt et of., J. Chem. Soc 1963, 5235. Synthesis of (+) -artemisin Nakazaki, Naemura, Tetrahedron Letters 1966, 2615. 

Bacitracin. Altracin Ayfivin Fortracin Penitra-cin Topitracin Zutracin. Antibiotic polypeptide complex produced by Bacillus subfilis and licheniformis Johnson et al, Science 102, 376 (1945) Anker et at. J. Bacterial 55, 249 (1948). Commercial bacitracin is a mixture of at least nine bacitracins. Purification of bacitracin by carrier displacement method Porath, Acta Chem. Stand. 6, 1237 (1952). Purification with ion exchange resin Chaiet, Cochrane, U.S, pat. 2,915,432 (1959 to Merck Co.). Production Johnson, Meleney, U.S. pat- 2,498,165 (1950 to the U.S. Secy, of War) Freaney, Allen, U.S, pat. 2,828,246 (1958 to Commercial Solvents). Solubilities Weiss et al, Antibiot. Che-mother. 7, 374 (1957). Preliminary structure studies Haus-mann et at, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 77, 723 (1955) Lockhart et of, Biochem. J. 61, 534 (1955) St off el, Craig, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 83, 145 (1961), Structure of bacitracin A Ressler,... 

E. Merck (Darmstadt), where it was obtained from the mother liquors remaining from the technical preparation of the principal harmala alkaloids. The material from this source, which was named peganine, was investigated by E. Spath and his school (1929-1938) (35), and its identity with vasicine soon became apparent (6, 7). In accordance with custom, the name peganine should therefore be abandoned in favor of the older name recognition of the occurrence of the alkaloid in Peganum harmala is made, however, in the retention of the convenient systematic nomenclature introduced by Sp th (16), which is based on the name pegan for the parent tricyclic system (IV). 

E. Merck (165, 166) from the mother liquors remaining after the isolation of pilocarpine, and this material was investigated by E. Harnack (24, 26). 

Later further components in mother liquors of the erythromycin purification have been found. The separation of these degradation products from the erythromycins hitherto known has been worked out (42). In this procedure, 5 pi of dichloromethane (I mg/ml) were applied on silica gel plates from different manufacturers, developed over a distance of 15 cm, dried at 110°C for 5 min, sprayed with the reagent, and heated as described before. Using silica gel (Stratochrom SIF2S4, Carlo Erba) with five different solvents and silanized silica gel (Merck), separations were done at room temperature in the following solvents ... 

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