Merck looks to find balance in health industry

As chairman and chief executive of America’s Merck, one of the world’s largest pharmaceuticals companies, Ken Frazier is at the centre of some of the most pressing medical issues of the modern era. He tells the FT's US managing editor Martin Dickson that there is a careful balance between innovation and control of rising health care costs. Underlining the difficulty of research, Mr Frazier spoke shortly before Merck announced a disappointing result from a high-profile heart disease study of its cholesterol drug Tredaptive.