Merck & Co Inc said on Thursday Kenneth Frazier, one of only a handful of Black executives leading major US companies, would step down as chief executive officer at the end of June to be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Robert Davis.
Frazier, 66, will remain with the drugmaker as executive chairman for a transition period to be determined by the board.
Davis has been CFO of Merck since 2014 and has been in charge of the company's business development, real estate and other corporate strategic functions since 2016.
A career healthcare executive, he was the president of Baxter International Inc's medical products business before joining Merck and also spent 14 years at Eli Lilly and Co.