Merck NEWS UPDATE

• The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, and the NIAID-funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network announced that vaccination in the STEP clinical trial of Merck's HIV vaccine candidate would be discontinued . The decision was based on recommendations made by an independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the STEP trial, which concluded that the vaccine could neither prevent HIV infection nor reduce the amount of virus in those who became infected with HIV.

• Merck has been advised that the new drug application for over-the-counter MEVACOR (lovastatin) will be reviewed by the FDA Joint Meeting of the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and the Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee on December 13, 2007. Merck is seeking approval of OTC MEVACOR (lovastatin) 20 mg taken once daily to help lower cholesterol, which may prevent a first heart attack.

• In Phase IIb study results anacetrapib (formerly known as MK-0859), its investigational selective cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor, significantly reduced LDL-cholesterol and Apolipoprotein B and increased HDL-cholesterol and Apolipoprotein A-1 both as monotherapy and in combination with atorvastatin 20 mg compared to placebo in patients with dyslipidemia.

• CANCIDAS® (caspofungin acetate), given once daily, was evaluated as a treatment for patients three months to 17 years of age with documented or suspected fungal infections. The use of CANCIDAS in pediatric patients is investigational. Interim results from the first Phase II clinical trial to study this therapy in pediatric patients with invasive candidiasis, esophageal candidiasis or invasive aspergillosis (as salvage therapy only) will be presented.

Merck NEWS

Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) reported a Phase II trial of its leukemia drug Campath (monoclonal antibody targeting CD52) showed superiority at treating multiple sclerosis over Merck’s (NYSE: MRK) Rebif (Interferon beta-1a).

Merck FDA APPROVAL

The FDA granted Merck's (NYSE: MRK) Isentress™ (raltegravir) accelerated approval for use in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in treatment-experienced adult patients who have evidence of viral replication and HIV-1 strains resistant to multiple antiretroviral agents. It is the first in a new class of drugs, which work to prevent HIV from inserting its DNA into human DNA, thereby inhibiting its ability to replicate and infect new cells. Merck has set the price for its newly approved AIDS drug Isentress at $27 a day wholesale, in the range of other popular medicines but lower than some at the highest end.

Merck PRODUCTS Part II

Note to self: A look at AZ's products and pipline:


Vaccine products include:

Varivax to prevent chickenpox

MMRII for the treatment of measles, mumps, and rubella

ProQuad to prevent measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella

Gardasil to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts

Pneumovax to prevent pneumococcal diseases

RotaTeq to prevent rotavirus gastroenteritis

Zostavax to prevent of shingles UNIVERSITY COLORADO IP

Merck PRODUCTS Part I

Note to self: A look at AZ's products and pipline:


Therapeutic products include:

Singulair for chronic asthma, and allergic rhinitis

Cozaar and Vasotec for hypertension and heart failure

Fosamax for osteoporosis

Zocor for atherosclerosis

Primaxin & Cancidas anti-bacterial/anti-fungal products

Cosopt and Trusopt ophthalmological products

Proscar for benign prostate enlargement

Maxalt for acute migraines

Propecia for male pattern hair loss

Merck OVERVIEW SUMMARY

Merck (NYSE: MRK) headquartered in Whitehouse Station, NJ works in in both human and animal health (Merial).

Merck has agreements with:

Neuromed Pharmaceuticals for treatment of pain and neuro disorders

NicOx for the development of antihypertensive drugs

FoxHollow Technologies for atherosclerotic plaque analysis

Ariad Pharmaceuticals for AP23573, an mTOR inhibitor

Big Pharma 411 Off to the Races!

QUESTION:

What do J&J (NYSE: JNJ), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), Novartis (NYSE: NVS), Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT), AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) have in common?

ANSWER:

They are the ten biggest of big pharma with a combined market cap of approximately 1.17 trillion, with a capital T, dollars!

So as I have stated in the description box, this blog has been architected for selfish purposes. That is, I do a lot of work in the early-stage biotech realm, and you can keep up with that portion of my life here at Colorado Life Science Deal Flow however, my knowledge-base of which big pharma is leader in what particular drug class(es) and technology(ies) is deficient and thus I intend to address that deficiency here by:

1. Breaking down each entity by products and pipeline, and
2. Then keep up with news and milestones

I will maintain all of my notes here and plan to create a smart indexing process that will allow me, and obviously anyone else who finds their way here, to search this aggregated content by Company, by Indication and by Technology. Feel free to pepper me with your big pharma of choice for inclusion here. Naturally, I welcome any and all suggestions. And here we go…