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Merck's Yarno Waves Goodbye
After more than 25 years at Merck, Wendy Yarno, the company’s chief marketing officer, will retire. The announcement of Yarno’s stepping down was made this morning in an e-mail to Merck employees.
Yarno joined Merck in 1983 as a sales rep, went on to launch Cozaar and Hyzaar, and then eventually was named to oversee marketing for Merck’s human healthcare business. Most recently, she received press for her pivotal role in launching Januvia.
Yarno has been out in front, talking about the importance of Merck’s transformation and the need to create better alignment among the different functions at the company. But all this alignment suggests that Yarno’s retirement might have come a bit earlier than expected. A source inside the company reveals that this is just the first of many other changes expected to be announced shortly.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Based upon the conversations ongoing at Beaker, the functional landscape of pharmaceutical marketing could not be changing any faster. Wendy’s ‘departure’ is but only one example of a shift in ideology from 3-5 years ago in how drugs & drug companies market their value.