Merck & Co Company Description

Merck & Co. is the third-largest pharmaceutical company in the world, according the ranking done by IMS. The company established its presence in the United States as a subsidiary of the original German company in 1891. The company operates in four operating segments namely Consumer Care, Animal Health, Pharmaceutical and Alliances. The largest segment of the company is the Pharmaceutical segment which accounted for 88% of revenues in 2012. Merck has a global presence but the majority of its revenues come from the US with Europe in second and Japan in third place. The Pharmaceutical segment produces products for many therapeutic sections which include cardiovascular, oncology HIV, respiratory etc. Read More: MRK

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) To Present MK-7243 Phase III Study Findings

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) announced the data for its investigational MK-7243 tablet from a Phase III clinical study involving 1,501 North American adult and pediatric patients. MK-7243 is a Timothy grass sublingual allergy immunotherapy tablet that had been accepted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review Biologics License Applications alongside that of ragweed pollen sublingual allergy immunotherapy tablet. The company anticipates these reviews by the USFDA to be completed during 1H14.  To develop the sublingual allergy immunotherapy tablets, Merck had partnered with ALK-Abello.

The results for MK-7243 showed that the therapy demonstrated significant improvement in TCS (Total Combined Score), DSS (Daily Symptom Score) and DMS (Daily Medication Score) compared to placebo. Read more.

Merck & Co., Inc. : ALK-Abello Cuts Fiscal Year Guidance On Deferred Milestone Payment

The deferral of Merck's (Merck & Co., Inc.) milestone payment for its allergy immunotherapy tablet into 2014 from 2013 is largely offset by a stronger than expected improvement in ALK's underlying profitability. Hence, revenue is now expected at DKK2.2 billion-DKK2.25 billion (previously: over DKK2.3 billion) and Ebitda before special items at approximately DKK250 million (previously: DKK200 million-DKK300 million including the deferred milestone payment).

  

The simplification of the production and business structures is expected to entail full-year restructuring costs of approximately DKK20 million, DKK7 million of which have already been recognised. Read more.

Researchers Note Cautions About Geron Drug

Gary Gilliland, the former head of cancer research at Merck and the Vice President for Precision Medicine at Penn Medicine, and Alan List, the President and CEO of Moffit Cancer Center, for their thoughts on the data.

“It’s very interesting data but it’s very early, they have small numbers of patients with modest follow up,” says Gilliland. “I hate the hype that comes out around this because these patients are so desperate for treatments.”

In the exciting column: Four of 18 patients had blood test results consistent with a complete remission of disease, and one more with a partial remission and three with clinical improvement. Read more.