Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Re: MRK and FoB’s

>The Merck BioVentures division is being built on the foundation of GlycoFi, a biotech company that Merck acquired two years ago.<

MRK paid $400M to acquire GlycoFi in 2006 (#msg-11018747), but MRK has said virtually nothing about the acquisition since then—until today. GlycoFi presumably gives MRK a competitive advantage in FoB’s that could lead to MRK’s becoming one of the main players in this arena.

However, the fact that MRK highlighted a planned FoB for Epogen during today’s presentation makes me wonder. As FoB’s go, Epogen is an easy one. There are already several knockoffs of Epogen on the market in Europe and even such a tiny company as INSM is planning one for the US. Thus, if Epogen is going to be the flagship product in MRK’s FoB line-up, one has to question the extent to which MRK truly has differentiating technology to exploit in the FoB arena.

Ditto the above with regard to the other “easy” FoB’s such as insulin, hGH, and G-CSF, and interferon. Many companies have the expertise to manufacture these proteins to a standard that ought to be sufficient for approval as an FoB.