Merck

BOSTON -- Hasn't anyone ever told drug companies to put a warning label on their lobbying? You know, the kind you find on every little prescription bottle? "Caution: Too much lobbying may result in an overdose of suspicion. Push too hard and you may experience political acid reflux." As it is, Merck seems to have rolled a million - or many millions - into a shoestring. And the real losers may be girls and women who need access to the vaccine against cervical cancer. Let's return to that magical moment when clinical trials proved that a new vaccine was nearly 100 percent effective in preventing two strains of the human papillomavirus that causes most cervical cancer.

WASHINGTON -- Merck & Co., the world's No. 3 drugmaker, won Food and Drug Administration approval yesterday for its once-a-day painkiller Vioxx, a rival to Monsanto Co.'s Celebrex in the $8 billion-a-year arthritis painkiller market.Merck said Vioxx will arrive in U.S. pharmacies by mid-June.Vioxx will compete directly with Celebrex, which has become the second-most-prescribed arthritis drug after entering the market in January. Developed by Monsanto, Celebrex is co-marketed by Pfizer Inc.Merck needs a new winning product to offset an expected decline in revenue after 2001, when four of its drugs -- with combined annual sales of about $5 billion -- will lose patent protection.

WASHINGTON -- Merck & Co. won U.S. approval yesterday to sell its Aggrastat drug, a new competitor in a potential $1 billion-plus heart-drug market now controlled by Centocor Inc.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval is a setback for South San Francisco, Calif.-based Cor Therapeutics Inc., which earlier appeared to be ahead in the race to become the second company with one of the so-called anti-platelet drugs on the market.The drugs work by preventing tiny blood cells known as platelets from sticking together and forming potentially deadly blood clots.

The Federal Trade Commission has dropped its investigation into whether pharmacy chains violated antitrust rules when they refused to participate in a Maryland state employee drug benefit plan, the agency confirmed yesterday.Although the FTC does not comment directly on investigations, it released a "closing letter," dated June 17, that said, "Upon further review of this matter, it now appears that no further action is warranted by the commission at this time."Rite Aid Corp., one of the chains involved, first announced the agency's action yesterday.

NEW YORK -- Merck & Co. and J. P. Morgan & Co. led the Dow Jones industrial average lower yesterday, and Apple Computer Inc. was the only stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index to rise."

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks took their worst tumble in more than a month after Merck & Co. reported disappointing earnings and Sears, Roebuck & Co. issued a gloomy profit forecast yesterday.The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst decline since Sept. 10, falling 119.10, or 1.5 percent, to 7,938.88. It was the first time this month that the 30-stock average closed below 8,000. Merck and Sears accounted for one-third of the drop.The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 10.47, or 1.1 percent, to 955.25, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 23.71, or 1.4 percent, to 1,699.

Baltimore-based Bio Science Contract Production Corp. said yesterday that it has struck a multiyear contract with Merck & Co. Inc., one of the world's largest drug companies, to produce materials for new vaccines Merck is developing.The contract -- the value of which neither party would disclose -- is the largest single deal 2-year-old Bio Science has landed, said Jacques "Jack" Rubin, chairman of Bio Science. He said the contract would result in "millions" of dollars for his young, privately held company and generate a substantial number of new jobs at the nonprofit Maryland BioCenter in East Baltimore.

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks fell yesterday, led by Merck & Co., amid concern that profit growth may not meet expectations as competition intensifies.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.32 to 6,563.84, paced by Merck, on concern that Merck's best-selling cholesterol drugs may be losing market share to a new medication from Warner-Lambert Co.The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 5.52 to 760.60 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 7.94 to 1,249.43.The Russell 2,000 index of small capitalization stocks gained 0.76 to 346.73; the Wilshire 5,000 index of stocks on the New York, American and Nasdaq exchanges lost 37.15 to 7,268.

NEW YORK -- Tightwads take note. Individual investors in the U.S. can now buy stock in Merck & Co., the nation's biggest drugmaker, directly from the company.Just send Merck an enrollment form and a check for at least $350, plus a $10 enrollment fee."It's no muss, no fuss investing," said Charles Carlson, a certified financial analyst and editor of the No-Load Stock Insider newsletter. "It doesn't get much easier."Or cheaper. Merck is one of about 200 American corporations that invite investors to buy their shares directly from the companies or their bank representatives, bypassing brokers and brokers' commissions.

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks were little changed yesterday as gains in Merck & Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. were offset by mixed performances among retailers and declines in airline issues.Barring a further drop in interest rates or a significant improvement in corporate earnings, many money managers aren't especially optimistic about the outlook for stocks.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.10 to 5,665.78 after rising 11.84 early in the day. Merck and AT&T Corp. advanced, and Aluminum Co. of America and Eastman Kodak Co. declined.

1928 landmark to be restored A development team has launched a $1 million project to restore the 1928 landmark building that was constructed to house Baltimore's North Street Market. The team, which includes the owner of the nearby Charles Theatre, envisions an arts-focused mix of shops, eateries and offices that can become a gathering spot for Charles North, part of the emerging Station North arts district. Health data exchange set In a bid to improve treatment and reduce errors, Erickson Retirement Communities, Johns Hopkins Medicine, MedStar Health and the University of Maryland Medical System plan to create a pioneering health information exchange that would give emergency room physicians quick access to patients' medication histories.

Doctors are expected to have nothing but their patients' best interests at heart as they dispense treatment and advice. Companies that sell pharmaceuticals and medical equipment are driven by profits; they're part of an almost $1 trillion-a-year global industry. The two groups rely on each other, but the symbiotic relationships that have developed between doctors and drugmakers present conflicts that can no longer be ignored. The Journal of the American Medical Association revealed last week that the drug company Merck publicized research studies about its ill-fated drug Vioxx that were not written by the high-profile medical scientists whose names were attached to those studies.

The news this week that Merck & Co. conducted research on its own drug and paid prominent scientists to lend their names to the studies came as no surprise to many people in medicine. Researchers and ethicists say scientists are often paid to be listed as authors of ghostwritten studies in scientific journals, a practice they say undermines the public's already sagging confidence in research. "We've got to stop this," said Dr. Catherine D. DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, which had an article on the topic this week.

Two of the world's best-selling drugs to lower cholesterol might have no benefit, researchers reported yesterday, a development that significantly could alter how patients are treated for heart disease. Based on the news, a top medical journal encouraged doctors to stop prescribing them routinely. Vytorin and a related drug, Zetia, did not reduce fatty plaque in arteries any more than a generic, researchers presenting at a cardiology conference in Chicago said. Plaque is a buildup of cholesterol in the arteries and is believed to play a key role in heart attacks and strokes.

Merck & Co. Shares declined $1.32, or 2.8 percent, to $46.69. The third-largest U.S. drugmaker reported a fourth- quarter loss and sales of the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine that missed analysts' estimates.

The failure of Merck & Co.'s once-promising AIDS vaccine has cast a pall over research efforts and forced delays in trials of other experimental vaccines as scientists ponder what went wrong. After more than two decades of work, vaccine researchers were hoping to be further along. Even if other vaccine initiatives eventually succeed, the arduous process of development and testing means that there won't be an immunization to prevent HIV for at least another decade, one top federal researcher says.

Merck & Co.'s decision to pay $4.85 billion to settle tens of thousands of claims from patients who took the popular painkiller Vioxx could stiffen the resolve of other companies facing litigation over pharmaceutical products or other consumer goods. The settlement, which was announced yesterday, also might vindicate the drugmaker's initial strategy of aggressively fighting virtually every injury claim, legal experts said. Other corporate defendants that have stonewalled plaintiffs, including asbestos manufacturers, have ended up in bankruptcy.

Three years after withdrawing its pain medication Vioxx from the market, Merck has agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle 45,000 lawsuits by people who claim they or their family members suffered injury or died after taking the drug, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The settlement, one of the largest ever in civil litigation, comes after nearly two dozen trials in states from New Jersey to California. After losing a $253 million verdict in the first case, Merck has won most of the rest of the cases that reached juries.

PHILADELPHIA -- In a widely expected move, Merck & Co.'s arthritis drug Arcoxia was rejected by U.S. regulators yesterday amid concerns that it could pose some of the same cardiovascular risks as the company's withdrawn pain-reliever Vioxx. The Food and Drug Administration said it wanted more data showing that the benefits outweighed potential risks before approving Merck's successor drug to Vioxx, the company said. Merck said the FDA issued a "non-approvable" letter for Arcoxia stating that "Merck would need to provide additional data in support of the benefit-to-risk profile for the proposed doses of Arcoxia in order to gain approval."

BOSTON -- Hasn't anyone ever told drug companies to put a warning label on their lobbying? You know, the kind you find on every little prescription bottle? "Caution: Too much lobbying may result in an overdose of suspicion. Push too hard and you may experience political acid reflux." As it is, Merck seems to have rolled a million - or many millions - into a shoestring. And the real losers may be girls and women who need access to the vaccine against cervical cancer. Let's return to that magical moment when clinical trials proved that a new vaccine was nearly 100 percent effective in preventing two strains of the human papillomavirus that causes most cervical cancer.