Friday, April 15, 2011

Merck gets into a safe zone (marketwatch.com)

KENILWORTH, NJ - MARCH 09: The headquarters fo...Image by Getty Images via @daylife

marketwatch.com Shares of Merck(MRK 34.71+0.85+2.51%)   rose almost 3% to $34.68 in morning trading.
Merck said early Friday that it has reached a deal with Johnson & Johnson(JNJ 60.89+0.87+1.45%)   that will allow it to retain some of the marketing rights to the lucrative rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade. The drug previously had been co-marketed by J&J and Schering-Plough, which Merck acquired in 2009.
J&J had asserted that the Schering-Plough takeover triggered a change-of-control clause in Remicade’s marketing agreement, thereby granting full commercial control to J&J.
Under the deal, Merck will pay J&J $500 million up-front, but retain marketing rights in Europe, Russia and Turkey.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Roche results franked

Roche suffered even as Franc sales continue to get easier to print into dollars getting it $12 billion in sales while price cuts by DM governments, currency appreciation and losing franchises ( down 50% in Tamiflu and even for cancer drug Avastin) got a disappointing picture emerging. The company is expecting to end 2011 with a near double digit EPS performance and going by big pharma restructuring would be comparable to Pfizer in sales after it drawsdown on its restructuring plan and manages to lose the much talked $12 billion Lipitor to Generics
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