BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Merck's challenges

March 16, 2009 7:00 AM UTC

The merger of Merck & Co. Inc. and Schering-Plough Corp. combines complementary pipelines that could make shareholders happy in the short term by maintaining Merck's dividend and delaying the loss of revenues from patent expirations.

But Merck can't expect much of a near-term pop from new products Schering-Plough brings. Of the four in registration, one is a me-too, two have regulatory issues and one might be disputed by a partner. Thus long-term growth will depend on clinical and regulatory execution, particularly for a Schering-Plough compound in the increasingly competitive HCV space and of both companies' compounds in the cardiovascular space, where FDA has been raising the regulatory hurdles...