Drugmakers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. have received requests from U.S. antitrust regulators for more information on their proposed blockbuster merger.
Stocks turned higher Monday morning as investors considered Merck's $41 billion purchase of Schering-Plough and opted to scoop up shares hit in the recent selloff.
Stocks ended mixed Tuesday for the second day in a row, after declining most of the session, following a troubling report on consumer confidence and some trepidation about what the Federal Reserve will decide at the conclusion of its two-day meeting that began this morning.
After the latest round of mixed earnings from the biggest players in pharma and biotech, companies are hampered by a frustrating dynamic: a product mix that isn't strong enough to match an exodus of blockbusters.
Drugmakers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. have received requests from U.S. antitrust regulators for more information on their proposed blockbuster merger.
Stocks turned higher Monday morning as investors considered Merck's $41 billion purchase of Schering-Plough and opted to scoop up shares hit in the recent selloff.
Stocks ended mixed Tuesday for the second day in a row, after declining most of the session, following a troubling report on consumer confidence and some trepidation about what the Federal Reserve will decide at the conclusion of its two-day meeting that began this morning.
After the latest round of mixed earnings from the biggest players in pharma and biotech, companies are hampered by a frustrating dynamic: a product mix that isn't strong enough to match an exodus of blockbusters.
Merck has pulled off a remarkable comeback in the last two years. Now the pharma giant is conjuring medicines with a new scientific swagger, making two particularly risky bets.
As the market flirts with recession, many of the top performers are healthcare providers, suggesting that the sector could be returning to its old reputation as a safe port in a storm.
The drugmakers Merck and Lilly are the biggest players in Big Pharma's late-stage pipeline, with three possible new blockbusters expected in the coming months.
Merck's $702 million deal with Swiss biotech Addex, announced today, to co-develop a schizophrenia drug may not be a huge deal in the multibillion-dollar world of Big Pharma. But it offers further evidence that the U.S. drug giant is securing its future by essentially outsourcing its research and development to smaller, nimbler firms.
The recall of a routine vaccine for babies due to contamination risks could trigger a shortage and likely will alarm parents, but officials said there is no known health threat
The drugmaker Merck & Co. said Tuesday that it will seek federal approval for two new experimental drugs next year, adding that it's on track to meet its sales targets.
Merck failed to excite investors with its financial guidance for 2007 and 2008, causing a temporary stock drop, but analysts were reluctant to condemn the drugmaker.
Stocks were poised for a lower open Tuesday as Federal Reserve officials voiced new worries about the economy, drugmaker Merck gave disappointing 2008 guidance, and lawmakers turned their sights on credit card debt as a fresh area of worry.
Novartis' troubled diabetes drug Galvus, which has been approved by European regulators, might never make it to the U.S. market, an analyst said Tuesday.
Merck & Co. announced Friday that it will pay $4.85 billion to settle as claims by as many as 47,000 groups of plaintiffs over injuries linked to its blockbuster Vioxx painkiller.
A promising experimental vaccine to prevent the AIDS virus has failed in a crucial experiment, with volunteers becoming infected with HIV anyway, leading the drug developer to halt the study.
In a major legal victory for Merck & Co. in its massive Vioxx litigation, New Jersey's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a potential class-action lawsuit that could have cost the drugmaker up to $18 billion.
Merck has enjoyed a strong comeback since the messy Vioxx blowout nearly three years ago. But you might be surprised by how well Merck has done since it pulled its arthritis drug from the market.
The successful launch of a blockbuster drug depends heavily on Big Pharma's ability to custom-tailor its sales pitch country-by-country, a difficult task in which few drugmakers excel, according to a study from research firm IMS Health.
A vaccine laboratory in England that is being investigated for a potential link to a foot-and-mouth outbreak at a nearby farm is owned by vaccine manufacturers Merck and Sanofi-Aventis.
Merck & Co. said Monday that quarterly earnings rose 12 percent on strong demand for its newer vaccines and medicines, and raised its 2007 profit forecast, sending its shares up nearly 8 percent.
The Street is bullish on Big Pharma, and experts believe the launch of new, fast-growing drugs fueled earnings for most of the major U.S. drugmakers in the second quarter.
Shares of traditional drug makers left biotechs in the dust in the first half of 2007, a role-reversal of the recent past, when investors favored the fast-growing but risky biotechs over so-called Big Pharma stocks.
After a rough couple of years dealing with patent expirations and the often frustrating hunt for new products, drug industry executives would love nothing better than an oracle to predict what products in their labs will become the big blockbuster drugs over the next few years.
Merck plans to submit three new drugs to the Food and Drug Administration in 2007 and said it will have four experimental drugs in late-stage testing, the company said Tuesday.
Drugmaker Merck & Co. faces a potential $5.58 billion in tax liabilities from U.S. and Canadian authorities related to a number of disputes over accounting for past transactions, the company said in a filing Tuesday.
The latest lawsuit against Merck over its market-pulled painkiller Vioxx debuts this week in a California courtroom, while the drug giant continues to defend itself in a separate trial in New Jersey.
The New England Journal of Medicine posted a correction in its current issue, removing its previously published finding that it takes at least 18 months for heart attack risks to increase from use of Vioxx, the anti-arthritis painkiller that Merck pulled from the market.
Merck, the no. 2 drugmaker in America, said on Tuesday that it made a correction to the study that led to the withdrawal of its arthritis painkiller Vioxx, but that it didn't change the results of the study.
Merck is just weeks away from its next trial over the former blockbuster drug Vioxx, and lawyers from both sides have fresh fodder for the courtroom battle.
Merck announced that Vioxx patients did not suffer an increased risk of heart attacks from blood clots after they stopped taking the drug, though the company said it would not change its legal strategy regarding the withdrawn painkiller.
Stocks were looking for direction early Friday, as reports of corporate deals were balanced by disappointing guidance from Intel and higher oil prices.
Merck & Co. was found not liable by a New Jersey jury Thursday in the second Vioxx trial -- a key victory for the troubled drugmaker as it faces thousands of other lawsuits over the painkiller.
Drugmaker Merck & Co. -- set back on its heels last year when its Vioxx painkiller was forced off the market -- named company veteran Richard T. Clark as its new CEO and president Thursday, succeeding Raymond Gilmartin, who is retiring next year.
Listening to Ray Gilmartin, you can't help but be struck by how matter-of-fact and calm the man seems. The 63-year-old Merck chairman and CEO is soft-spoken, quick with a smile, and unfailingly pol...
He's a small manufacturer in the Midwest--call him Jack. His company makes inexpensive housewares, about $20 million worth every year. His customers include Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target, three giant...
No enterprise can achieve greatness without a superior product or service. Thus have our most successful business leaders--alive or dead, and bound for the Hall of Fame--explored all paths in searc...
^ THINK YOU had a good year? Merck just wrapped up 12 months in which sales are projected to increase over 20% to $5 billion and earnings more than 30% to $900 million. Behind those numbers are som...
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