Allan Gabor, Merck China President

The fight against coronavirus is a great challenge China and the world are facing together. I am deeply impressed by China's immense efforts, and efforts around the globe, to jointly resolve this crisis.

We greatly value the government's support for giving us clear instructions as the outbreak escalated, both at central and regional levels. This has helped us develop our employee protection measures and better introduce clear instructions. In the same time, the government has been very efficient in getting our sites back into operation. Our performance material site in Shanghai resumed operations on Feb 5, one of the first to reopen in Shanghai. Our operations in Wuxi, Suzhou and Nantong have also done so. We are pleased we are able to meet our customer's needs.

We believe China will rebound quickly. Thus, we continue to have faith in China's market and economy. Our footprint will continue to grow in China. Today, the Chinese market is becoming increasingly important to Merck, our second-largest sales market worldwide. And in the Display Solutions business unit (Performance Materials) and the General Medicine & Endocrinology franchises (Healthcare), China is already our No 1 market.