Merck

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. -- Merck & Co. Inc. unveiled details yesterday of an ambitious restructuring campaign it hopes will restore its once-vaunted position, including narrowing its research priorities and reducing sales calls on physicians. The company, which has about a fifth of its global workforce of 63,000 in suburban Philadelphia, said total cutbacks over the next five years should be worth between $4.5 billion and $5 billion - $1 billion more than it first announced last month.

Perhaps too much fuss is being made over the defection of Celsion Corp. to New Jersey. Founded in Maryland in the 1980s, the Columbia-based biotech company has all of 18 employees. But Celsion is the kind of outfit that is supposed to represent Maryland's economic future: a biomedical research boutique on the verge of launching a product, collecting revenue, booking profits and hiring dozens of workers. And it has decided it doesn't want to do that here. "What we've found — as we looked at the talent pool in Maryland — there wasn't a large supply of individuals" with experience in marketing, selling and distributing pharmaceuticals, said Jeff Church, Celsion's senior vice president of business strategy.

Merck & Co. the world's largest drug maker, said yesterday that it had completed the $6 billion purchase of Medco Containment Services Inc., one of the largest mail-order pharmacy and managed-care drug companies.The deal was closed after Medco shareholders overwhelmingly approved the sale, which was announced on July 28.Demonstrating the new company's marketing strength, Medco announced that it had signed new contracts with General Motors Corp. and a dozen other large companies since July.

Big Pharma got bigger yesterday with Merck Co.'s announcement that it will acquire rival Schering-Plough in a cash-and-stock transaction worth $41.1 billion. And it is being made easier courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. Faced with tough competition from generics, fewer blockbuster drugs in development and the prospect of a government overhaul of the U.S. health care system, drug makers are consolidating. In January, the world's top pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, made a $68 billion bid for Wyeth.

With the number of Vioxx-related lawsuits soaring, the drug's manufacturer, Merck, might consider offering settlements to plaintiffs in a few cases, the company's general counsel, Kenneth C. Frazier, suggested yesterday. Merck had previously said that it planned to defend every personal-injury lawsuit filed over Vioxx, a painkiller and arthritis medicine that has been shown to raise the risk of heart attacks and strokes. But Frazier said yesterday that Merck would consider settling suits brought by people who took Vioxx for long periods of time and had few other risk factors for heart disease.

Martek Biosciences Corp. of Columbia said yesterday that it signed an agreement with drug giant Merck & Co. Inc. to allow Merck to use Martek's "library" of microalgae in a one-year search for organisms that can be made into new drugs.The deal has an initial value "in the low six figures," Martek spokeswoman Mona Hoff said.Its long-term value will depend on payments that Merck would make at later stages of research on specific drugs, and in royalties on those drugs that reach the market."It could be tons of money, but it's so far down the road it doesn't mean much now," Ms. Hoff said.

I like the prospects of Merck & Co. and am thinking of adding to my position. What's your opinion of the stock? - M.S., via the Internet Because its stock has been under the weather for some time, the third-largest drug company is trying to revive its earnings growth by seeking approval of several drugs and vaccines in the next three years. This is critical because, starting in 2006, Merck's blockbuster Zocor cholesterol medication will face competition from less-expensive generic drugs.

Now that my shares of Merck & Co. have revived, should I sell them? - K.R., via the Internet As it tries to put the problems from its once-popular painkiller Vioxx behind it, the drug giant is moving boldly forward. Merck has agreed to pay $1.1 billion to acquire Sirna Therapeutics Inc., a developer of drugs based on the RNA interference technology that attempts to silence the activity of some genes. This creates potential for drugs to target disease-related genes, particularly those contributing to cancer.

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.

Merck & Co., one of the world's largest drug makers announced yesterday that earnings growth would fall below expectations in 1993. It said the slowdown was caused by worldwide pressures on drug prices, growing competition and the strength of the dollar overseas. The company said it would eliminate 1,000 of its 38,400 jobs through dismissals and attrition.Merck told analysts that it expected 1993 earnings to rise only 11 percent to 12 percent instead of the 14 percent to 16 percent the company had expected.

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.

Backing further away from its peak set on Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 12.01 points yesterday and closed at 3,553.45. Three Dow stocks -- Du Pont, IBM and Merck -- all suffered point-plus losses, accounting for most of the Dow decline.MONEY TALK: "To die rich is to have lived in vain." (Jiddu Krishnamurti) . . . "Most of the rich people I've known have been fairly miserable." (Agatha Christie) . . . "I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, honey, rich is better." (Sophie Tucker.

PHILADELPHIA - Merck & Co. Inc. named a company insider, Richard T. Clark, as chief executive officer yesterday, ending Raymond V. Gilmartin's 11-year term in which the company fell in rank and reputation among the global drugmakers. The selection of Clark, 59, head of Merck's manufacturing division and former chief of its Medco unit, got mixed reviews from financial analysts, some of whom had hoped for a younger, outside team to turn Merck around. The company, with 65,000 employees worldwide, saw its fortunes fall in September after it voluntarily recalled its blockbuster pain-reliever Vioxx after studies showed it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.

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.