Mer­ck board waves off a forced re­tire­ment for CEO Ken Fra­zier, hap­py to ex­tend his reign

Suc­ces­sion plan­ning at Mer­ck $MRK is go­ing on the back burn­er.

Nor­mal­ly, CEO Ken Fra­zier would be prep­ping for the start of his last year at the phar­ma gi­ant. But with Keytru­da bar­rel­ing in­to the lead in the im­muno-on­col­o­gy field as Fra­zier en­joys a hard-won rep for prin­ci­pled lead­er­ship, the board has waved off the com­pa­ny’s manda­to­ry re­tire­ment age of 65.

That big birth­day is loom­ing at the end of next year.

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