Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Merck and Co (MRK), Economic data

Minyanville Professor David Miller dares to share the kind of keen insight and actionable information you won’t find in any prospectus. For more original thought, visit www.minyanville.com.

Professor Miller,

I just saw news of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK)’s and Schering Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP)’s Vytorin not meeting their goal of heart study. Approximately 40% of Schering Plough’s profit comes from this joint venture. Do you think pharmaceutical companies put too many eggs in one basket? Do they have a choice?

Minyan T.

MT,

They do have a choice, but the decision is to focus only on blockbuster drugs - which are a dying breed in this age of increased focus on personalized medicine. But the study is not as big of a disaster as some are saying. The main goal of aortic thickening is not as important to this drug as reductions in atherosclerotic events, which was positive in favor of Vytorin.

Basically, MRK/SGP tried to extend the market for Vytorin by this study in a place few thought it would work. They overextended, which is the bad news. The good news is the study confirmed the drug works to reduce cardiac events related to fat in the arteries, which is what the drug is primarily prescribed for.

-Professor Miller

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.