Replies to post #67734 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Any comments from the resident luminaries on this Forbes article? T.i.a.

[microcapfun]

>>Friend is not always right, of course; for instance, he was the impetus behind MRK’s collaboration with Geron which has come up empty.<<

Merck only this month took a telomerase vaccine into the clinic. They licensed the target (hTERT) from Geron - which cost them very little so far. The vaccine platform is their own.

In addition they paid all of $1M for an option to inlicense Geron's vaccine platform to use with the telomerase target, but they let that option lapse w/o exercising it.

I would say that Merck & Friend risked little in the Geron collaboration, and it is too early to say they came up "empty".

micro

[DewDiligence]

Stephen Friend is leaving MRK after eight years. Dr. Friend
has been profiled in various posts on this board including
#msg-33080882, #msg-7088222, and #msg-11470542.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dr-D-Gary-Gilliland-bw-14221889.html

Dr. Gilliland will replace Dr. Stephen H. Friend. Dr. Friend announced that he will be leaving the Company later this year to lead an effort to build open access integrative bionetworks, or complex databases, whereby scientific researchers around the world can collaborate on disease representations to advance collective scientific knowledge. The goal is to leverage collaboration to accelerate the elimination of human disease. Merck has been and will remain a key supporter of Dr. Friend on his ambitious and promising endeavor.