Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Addendum on MRK and FoB’s:

>Merck hopes the unique manufacturing process [from the GlycoFi acquisition] it plans to use for its anemia drug would sidestep certain patent obstacles and allow Merck to launch the drug about two years before similar drugs developed using mammalian cells could enter the market.<

Circumventing Big Bio’s process patents by using yeast could be a good business model, provided of course that the courts consider MRK’s process non-infringing. However, this FoB strategy doesn’t alter the opinions I expressed in #msg-34066478, where I questioned whether MRK truly has what it takes to be a leader in FoB’s.

At best, MRK’s Epogen FoB made using yeast will be a non-substitutable alternative to ordinary Epogen. It will have to be marketed just like a branded drug, and this makes the economics substantially less attractive than they would be for a full-fledged, substitutable biogeneric.