Philipp Daniel Merckle (born 1 October 1966 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) is a German entrepreneur. From 2005 to 2008 he has headed the

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

company

Ratiopharm Ratiopharm is a German pharmaceutical company that is Europe's leading generics brand. Ratiopharm was owned by Adolf Merckle and makes generic pharmaceuticals. They are based in Ulm, Germany, with products being distributed in over 35 countries ...

within the family group Merckle.

Early life

After he graduated from high school, Merckle began business training, eventually earning a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree as Betriebswirt. In 1998 he earned

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in pharmaceutical studies at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

Career

In 1999, he took over the

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate sympto ...

Merckle / Ratiopharm.

Public Appearances

chief Philip Merckle was featured in

TV advertising A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

with

Karlheinz Böhm Karlheinz Böhm (16 March 1928 – 29 May 2014) was an Austrian-German actor and philanthropist. He took part in 45 films and became well known in Austria and Germany for his role as Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis ...

. At the Africa Foundation, he manages the company's policy of selling pills to African

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s for 1 cent each. In May 2007, he joined under one of his company initiated "Awakening Tour" together with

Arved Fuchs Arved Fuchs (born 26 April 1953) is a German polar exploration, polar explorer and writer. Polar exploration On 30 December 1989, Fuchs and Reinhold Messner were the first to reach the South Pole with neither animal nor motorised help, us ...

and

Mark Ehrenfried Mark Christopher Paul Ehrenfried (; born 24 June 1991) is a German pianist and composer. He has published five albums and performed concerts worldwide. In Germany, he is especially known for his childhood TV appearances, for his collaboration ...

, during which he opined about economic policies he would like to see instituted in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

References

1966 births Living people Businesspeople from Hamburg University of Tübingen alumni {{germany-business-bio-stub