For all the people who are quoted in an article or book,
there are always far more who don’t appear by name, but
whose assistance seeps through so many of the sentences.
Some of them I can’t name even here, even in a mass listing
that doesn’t connect any names to any specific pieces of
information. I can only thank them anonymously—the sales
reps, factory workers, clerks, middle managers, and executives
who work and have worked at Merck; the doctors; the
reps from rival drug companies; the veterans from Madison
Avenue; the relocation advisor; the consultants. I know that
many of them were nervous about talking to me. They worried
that they were revealing the secrets of a very secretive
company, or that it might be hard for them to work in the
industry if their names were made public, or that outsiders
would consider the practices they described unethical. So I
want to thank these people especially for being willing to
share their information.