Merck will follow big pharma’s standard MO of looking elsewhere to bring new assets in-house, CEO Kenneth Frazier said at this week’s J.P. Morgan healthcare investing conference.
“As we move into 2015, we will continue to rigorously sharpen our focus, and find best external assets to fuel growth,” Frazier said, adding that Merck is on track to reduce R&D costs by $2.5 billion.
Here are the pharma behemoth’s four areas of strategic growth:
1. Diabetes – with continued marketing heft for its top-seller, Januvia
2. Vaccines – with a particular focus on the launch of shingles prophylactic Zostavax
3. Hospital acute care – with a focus on developing antimicrobials, particularly newere assets from the Cubist acquisition
4. Oncology – with aims to extend the indications associated with Keytruda
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
These fields represent about 40 percent of Merck’s biz today – and “while we’ll continue to support other areas, these will receive higher levels of resources and attention,” Frazier said.
