Merck and Co Inc (MRK)

[Stock_Barber]

Sure... who cares if the pills cause cancer... and they will!

The metabolites of the drug can be incorporated into human DNA. What happens when human cells mutate?

"The concern would be that mutations in host DNA could contribute to the development of cancer, or cause birth defects either in a developing fetus or through incorporation into sperm precursor cells. It seems unlikely that a short course of therapy would spare the host from this exposure because both RNA precursors that affect the virus and DNA precursors that would affect the host pass through the common ribonucleoside diphosphate intermediate."

The drug is a precursor to the ingredients used to make both RNA and DNA. As it creates mutations in virus RNA, it also creates mutations in human DNA.

I wouldn't take these pills under any circumstances!

[xZx]

yep, it's the american way. no other nation on earth allows pharma to grab taxpayer money for R&D, then turn around and soak them, with a 41.7 X markup.

i will cheer MRK if my calls finish nice and green, then ring the register, and save the profit -- to cover future medical bills.

unfortunately, life is a pre-existing condition.

good luck to all!

[tw0122]

Buy!buy!! Merck marking up the price of the pill forty times cost. Huge profits to be made.

A five-day course of Merck’s new Covid-19 pill costs $17.74 to produce, but the pharma firm will charge the USA $712.

The US government gave Merck some $29 million towards the development of molnupiravir, a drug that the company says “reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by approximately 50%” in clinical trials on Covid-19 patients. Despite this generous funding, Merck will still charge the federal government an estimated $712 for a five-day course of pills that costs $17.74 to produce, meaning the US taxpayer will pay for this fortyfold mark-up.

[webdev2016]

YES

[xZx]

MRK whales loaded the dip for next week.

[Agoura Guy]

Merck's own Ivermectin is highly effective against COVID-19 and safe. Big pharma has tried to suppress Ivermectin data so they can keep pushing their untested experimental bioweapon jabs and other expensive options.

[xZx]

makes sense, the MRK pill may be of use in hardest-hit areas of the US where hospitals are overwhelmed, or antibody cocktails are unavailable.

another application is for mild cases of COVID before anyone reaches a hospital.

news out of india today suggests "mild" cases may become a larger potential market for molnupiravir than "moderate" COVID cases.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/aurobindo-pharma-stop-molnupiravir-trial-moderate-covid-19-patients-2021-10-08/

although data from US trials doesn't corroborate their findings.

[DewDiligence]

I personally wouldn’t take molnupiravir for COVID-19 if I had the option of getting one of the authorized antibody cocktails. Molnupiravir may be a better fit for emerging markets where infusion centers and antibody access are hard to come by.

p.s. I'm long ENTA.

[xZx]

the morbidity and mortality of COVID makes the side effect profile of therapeutics a bit different.

but also, what about other drugs?

for example, safety concerns of imuran are very real. it carries a warning about potential cancer risks. yet people use it to control life-threatening autoimmune disorders.

humira is much the same.

methotrexate has a warning of possible "sudden death".

let's include diagnostics -- CT scans carry a cancer risk, too.

so i'm not disagreeing with your point at all, it's a valid one, but let's frame it in the bigger picture.

risk vs reward.

[DewDiligence]

Actually, the safety concern with molnupiravir is very real; here's a recent peer-reviewed article on the topic:

https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/224/3/415/6272009

Note that molnupiravir is a prodrug of NHC, the active metabolite.

[webdev2016]

Relax man. $MRK to 100

[Agoura Guy]

Molnupiravir is dangerous, there is no long term test data. Once again the FDA is in violation of its own rules because corrupt officials are bribed by big pharma.

Molnupiravir should be banned!

[xZx]

i actually agree with your point. but a mere 61 people follow what's said here. want to change minds, instead of annoying a handful of people?

go to twitter.

[Agoura Guy]

Merck is ripping off sick people charging $700 per treatment!!!! That IS a money grab.

Despicable!

[xZx]

MRNA was a money grab. have you seen the chart? everyone is buying MRK, or any pharma stock, to make a profit.

trade the market you're given, not the one you want.

[Agoura Guy]

Merck's other drug, Ivermectin is twice as effective and 1/40th the price!

Molnupiravir is nothing but an obscene money grab scam!!!

[BottomBounce]

$MRK 12-month price forecasts for Merck & Co Inc have a median target of 93.50, with a high estimate of 107.00 and a low estimate of 82.00. The median estimate represents a +15.52% increase from the last price of 80.94.

https://money.cnn.com/quote/forecast/forecast.html?symb=mrk

[webdev2016]

The miracle pill $MRK 100

[webdev2016]

Stupid article. Any medication can cause those outcomes. Nothing is 100% sure. End of Story. $MRK 100

[Agoura Guy]

"Proceed With Caution At Your Own Peril" - Merck's COVID 'Super Drug' Poses Serious Health Risks, Scientists Warn.

As it turns out, all the scientists and doctors who insisted that Merck's "revolutionary" COVID drug molnupiravir is extremely safe weren't faithfully adhering to "the science" after all. Because according to a report published Thursday by Barron's, some scientists are worried that the drug - which purportedly cut hospitalizations in half during a study that was cut short - could cause cancer or birth defects.

So much for having a "strong safety profile," as Dr. Scott Gottlieb claimed in an interview on the day Merck first publicized the research.

It's perfectly understandable why Merck might choose to play down this safety risk: assuming it's approved, the drug is widely expected to be one of "the most lucrative drugs ever" - which is one reason why Merck's shares soared into double-digit territory after the announcement.

As we reported earlier this week, Merck and its "partner" Ridgeback Biotherapeutics will profit immensely by charging customers up to 40x what it costs to make the drug, which Ridgeback originally licensed from Emory University for an "undisclosed sum". The drug was developed with funding from the federal government.

According to Barron's, some scientists who have studied the drug believe that its method of suppressing the virus could potentially run amok within the body.

Some scientists who have studied the drug warn, however, that the method it uses to kill the virus that causes Covid-19 carries potential dangers that could limit the drug’s usefulness.

Molnupiravir works by incorporating itself into the genetic material of the virus, and then causing a huge number of mutations as the virus replicates, effectively killing it. In some lab tests, the drug has also shown the ability to integrate into the genetic material of mammalian cells, causing mutations as those cells replicate.

If that were to happen in the cells of a patient being treated with molnupiravir, it could theoretically lead to cancer or birth defects.

In particular, Raymond Schinazi, a professor of pediatrics and the director of biochemical pharmacology at Emory who studied the drug while it was being developed, and published a number of papers on NHC, the compound that's the active ingredient in the drug. He published a paper that showed the drug can produce a reaction like the one described above, and insisted it shouldn't be given to young people - especially pregnant women - without more data.

Schinazi told Barron’s that he did not believe that molnupiravir should be given to pregnant women, or to young people of reproductive age, until more data is available. Merck’s trials of molnupiravir have excluded pregnant women; the scientists running the trial asked male participants to “abstain from heterosexual intercourse” while taking the drug, according to the federal government website that tracks clinical trials.

Barron's even shared a paper published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in May by Schinazi and scientists at the University of North Carolina which reported that NHC can cause mutations in animal cell cultures in a lab test designed to detect such mutations - something Merck claims it has tested for. The paper's authors concluded that the risks for molnupiravir "may not be zero".

Merck told Barron's that it has run "extensive tests" on animals which it says show that this shouldn't be an issue. "The totality of the data from these studies indicates that molnupiravir is not mutagenic or genotoxic in in-vivo mammalian systems," a Merck spokesman said.

Still, scientists and doctors who have studied NHC say that Merck needs to "be careful," and it's not just Schinazi warning about the drug's potential risks.

Dr. Shuntai Zhou, a scientist at the Swanstrom Lab at UNC, said "there is a concern that this will cause long-term mutation effects, even cancer."

Zhou says that he is certain that the drug will integrate itself into the DNA of mammalian hosts. "Biochemistry won’t lie," he says. "This drug will be incorporated in the DNA."

Merck hasn't yet released any data from its animal studies, but the scientists believe that it would take long-term studies to show that the drug is truly totally safe.

"Proceed with caution and at your own peril," wrote Raymond Schinazi, a professor of pediatrics and the director of the division of biochemical pharmacology at the Emory University School of Medicine, who has studied NHC for decades, in an email to Barron’s.

Analysts are already warning that these questions about the drug's safety suggest the reaction in Merck's shares was a little "overblown", to say the least. Investors apparently were so eager for a new "pandemic panacea" (now that the mRNA jabs have proven to be much less effective than advertised) that they didn't ask too many questions about safety, or even question the paucity of data. One analyst for SVB Leerink Dr. Geoffrey Porges described investors' reaction from Friday as "wishful thinking".

Even once the FDA authorizes the drug, Dr. Porges believes it will come with strict limitations on who can and can't use it. "I think it is effectively going to be a controlled substance", Dr. Porges said, adding that the risks to pregnant women, or women who may soon become pregnant, could present thorny problems for the FDA's advisory committee reviewing the drug.

Given that the safety risks of the drug seem well-documented already, Wall Street's gushing about the drug's prospects - "it really is THAT good", one analyst insisted - seems like an idiotic blunder in retrospect. The product of what one might call "magical thinking".

[sharky]

Big boys accumulating, bid sitting IMO




$MRK

[rynlrt]

Definitely seems to be manipulated right now

[sharky]

Surprised its not over 100.00 yet



$MRK

[rynlrt]

Not a bad day. Let's see if we can get over 84 tomorrow and set some higher lows

[DNORWOOD]

Merck is going to buy a little company called Elite Pharmaceuticals our of New Jersey. What’s up please post more information. How are then keeping this so hush and quite.

[xZx]

the road to $100 MRK.

[BottomBounce]

Here’s Why Merck $mrk Stock May Continue To Rise

https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2021/10/04/heres-why-merck-stock-may-continue-to-rise/?sh=51c554491dda

[xZx]

thanks, spot-on. they wouldn't be generating all this buzz unless FDA approval was assured.

[BottomBounce]

MERCK $MRK Why a pill you take at home could change the direction of the pandemic https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-a-pill-you-take-at-home-could-change-the-direction-of-the-pandemic-11633107022

[mik1234]

Agreed !

[mik1234]

Agreed !

[BottomBounce]

True. $100 coming $MRK

[xZx]

the options market is dropping today. but this feels like a manipulated dip before major news. i'm adding $90 11/5 calls. FDA approval could come very soon.

[BottomBounce]

$MRK Merck Agrees to Supply Covid-19 Treatment Pills to Singapore

[BottomBounce]

$MRK Merck's Oral COVID-19 Treatment Could Be Game-Changer: BofA Analyst

[xZx]

MRK -- here comes the bounce -- 80.61

[Agoura Guy]

MRK $90 11/5 calls are trading at $0.27 -0.14

[xZx]

yep, thanks, sharky! tick-tick-tick -- the time to load MRK calls is NOW.

[sharky]

Merck and Ridgeback will reap the profits from the new antiviral, which according to Quartz could bring in as much as $7 billion by the end of this year. After the announcement of the encouraging clinical trial results on Friday, Merck’s stock price climbed, while stock prices of some vaccine makers sagged. Despite its initial investment, the U.S. government seems to be facing a steep markup in prices. In June, the government signed a $1.2 billion contract with Merck to supply 1.7 million courses of the medication at the $712 price. The transaction is due to take place as soon as molnupiravir receives emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.



$MRK

[rynlrt]

Idk nothing is happening to my other calls

[xZx]

MRK $90 11/5 calls suddenly at .73, zooming higher. FDA approval coming?

[Agoura Guy]

Merck manufactures Ivermectin which is highly effective against COVID-19

Why are they trying to market a new pill that is half as effective for 40x greater price?

Here is some data on Merck's Ivermectin used against COVID-19:



MRK isn't reacting well to news about its new $700 treatment compared to its other product, Ivermectin which costs $10-$20 per treatment.

[sharky]

Loving these prices, looking forward to 100.00 break ahead IMO



$MRK

[Agoura Guy]

WHAT KIND OF CON ARTISTS RUN THIS COMPANY?

$700 PER TREATMENT? ARE THEY SERIOUS????

IVERMECTIN $10-$20 IN COMPARISON.....

AND CONSIDERING MERCK'S NEW PILL IS HALF AS EFFECTIVE THAT ACTUAL COMPARISON IS $10-$20 VS $1,400

MERCK SHOULD BE CHARGED FOR FRAUD!!!!!!!

RIPPING OFF SICK PEOPLE IS DESPICABLE!!!!!!!!!

[DewDiligence]

Molnupiravir’s mechanism of action makes it a scary drug:

https://www.barrons.com/articles/merck-covid-pill-risks-51633398722

https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/224/3/415/6272009

Anyone who's afraid of taking a COVID-19 vaccine would have to be nuts to get treated with molnupiravir. (Disclosure: I'm long ENTA.)

[xZx]

agree, rynlrt -- the news flow for MRK has been overwhelmingly positive.

[rynlrt]

Allowed me to buy some cheap calls at least. I'd expect a jump through this week and next

[xZx]

neither was i, especially with markets up, as they were. but there's usually a bullish explanation for these pullbacks. i'm sure plenty of whales/institutions want a piece of MRK before significant news hits.

[rynlrt]

Definitely wasn't expecting it to fall today. Then again it's bloody Tuesday

[Cat dog]

Japan might be closing deal any moment