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Taking the Merck
The Merck you refer to in this article is Merck KGaA (http://www.merck.de/de/index.html) - a German company, known in the US as EMD Millpore - http://www.emdmillipore.com/chemicals
This is unaffiliated with Merck & Co, Inc. (http://www.merck.com/index.html), the US company that produces Vioxx, and for whom Kelley Dougherty works.
The two companies used to be related, until the US government requisitioned the US branch of the German firm during WWI. However, this is no longer the case, and your picture of the HQ in Germany is erroneous.