Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Re: MRK’s ‘FoB’ program (addendum)

I finally got around to listening to MRK’s entire Dec 9 webcast. My conclusion: analysts and reporters jumped on the FoB bandwagon like Pavlov dogs and didn’t bother to listen to what Peter Kim, head of R&D, actually said.

What Kim actually said is that MRK plans to run a full-fledged clinical program for each of its so-called FoB’s; i.e., MRK does not intend to rely in whole or in part on the clinical data for a reference drug. Sifting through the BS, what this means is that MRK’s so-called FoB program is not about FoB’s at all; rather, it’s about developing biologics based on established MoA’s that exploit GlycoFi’s technology platform.

Biologics are a newfound area of focus for MRK, and this in itself is noteworthy. Moreover, GlycoFi’s platform may be able to produce better and/or cheaper drugs than conventional biopharmaceutical manufacturing. However, for MRK to say that it will use GlycoFi to become a “leader in FoB’s” in closer to propaganda than reality, IMO.