Merger boosts Merck’s revenue
pharmafile | February 17, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | MA, Merck
Merck’s merger with Schering-Plough in October has helped boost the company’s full year sales by 13% to $27.4 billion.
The gain associated with the acquisition of Schering-Plough was $7.53 billion. There was an additional increase in revenue of $400 million from the sale of animal healthcare Merial.
Merck’s biggest seller Singulair (montelukast sodium), indicated for treatment of asthma, saw sales of $4.7 billion, an increase of 7%.
Full year worldwide sales for anti-hypertensives Cozaar and Hyzaar were $3.6 billion, remaining static from 2008. Both are susceptible to major loses in 2010-2011 due to steep generic cliffs.
Merck is continuing its Merger Restructuring Programme that it estimates will make ongoing savings of $3.5 billion by 2012. As part of the first phase, Merck expects to reduce its total 100,000 strong workforce by approximately 15% across all areas of the combined company worldwide by the end of 2012.
The company also plans to cut approximately 2,500 vacant positions. The reductions will primarily come from cutting duplicated positions in sales, administrative and headquarters organisations, as well as from consolidating some manufacturing facilities and R&D operations.
“The new Merck is off to an excellent start,” said Richard Clark, chief executive. Merck. “Our performance last quarter was characterised by strong growth in key brands and continued investment in our newest products and promising late-stage pipeline.
“We’re building momentum in our business while making great progress on integration,” Mr. Clark added.
“Each of our top 10 selling brands from an expanded product portfolio exceeded $1 billion in annual sales. At the same time, we have a number of product launches underway in major global markets with more to come this year.
“We stand firmly behind the financial targets we provided at the time of our initial merger announcement. The real value drivers of our merger will be science and innovation because Merck’s long-term strength will come from our ability to develop critical medicines and vaccines.
“But what will set this merger apart is not just the ‘what’ but the ‘how’ — the clarity of our vision, our ability to hit the ground running, and the thoughtfulness with which we are managing the integration of our businesses, our operations and our people.”
Related Content
Merck to acquire Curon Biopharmaceutical’s B-Cell Depletion Therapy
Merck have announced that they have entered into an agreement with private biotechnology company Curon …
Merck and Daiichi Sankyo expand development and commericalisation agreement to include MK-6070
Daiichi Sankyo and Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada) have announced …
CHMP gives positive opinion for Merck’s KEYTRUDA for unresectable or metastatic urothelial carcinoma
Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada) has announced that its anti-PD-1 …
