Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK)

Symbols:
Authors:

All Comments on MRK

  • commenter
    Genentech
    fan
    May 14 11:11 AM
    Former Merck CEO Prods Industry on Drug Pricing [view article]
    Dr. Vagelos points the finger at Genentech for charging "unsustainable&qu... prices for a cancer drug that is utilized by mere thousands of patients rather than the millions of patients Merck's statin drug is sold to. As a result, Merck only has to charge each patient several hundred dollars a month to earn 2-3 times the revenue that Genentech earns from Avastin. Perhaps Dr. Vagelos would have only drug companies in business that research and discover only "mainstream" drugs for the masses (that mediate pain but also cause heart attacks) and not the lifesaving drugs like Herceptin for breast cancer that has saved thousand of women's lives. Dr. Vagelos conveniently forgot to point out that Merck has reaped tens of billions more in revenue from the same system that he says can't sustain the cost of Avastin. Reply
  • commenter
    User 36747
    May 14 06:26 AM
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    Interesting view point. One question regarding the notion that price controls can help to solve the health care situtation in the U.S. "What happens to the supply of doctors, drugs, etc. when price controls (i.e., price caps) are implemented?" Let me help you, the supply will fall and with it, access to health care. And just so you know, there will be a "honeymoon" period when price controls are in and supply is ample. But it takes 10-20 years for new drugs and 7-12 years for a M.D. to enter the system. What happens when you're middle-aged and the supply of docs/drugs is down by half? Oops! Reply
  • commenter
    User 192949
    May 14 02:35 AM
    Biotech Day in Review: Hopeful Results from HIV Conference [view article]
    is a fastest service. Reply
  • commenter
    chrylis
    May 14 01:00 AM
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    While the author's prescriptions are eyebrow-raising in themselves, it seems that they're based on some fundamental misunderstandings of what underlies the situations he sees.

    For example, cities don't regulate or manage water for consumer protection; they do it because a water utility is one of the special cases (almost all in infrastructure) where competition is impractical.

    Additionally, he begs the question on ExxonMobil profits. In fact, most of the recent upward trend in earnings has been due to increased consumption. Despite the author's ex cathedra assertion to the contrary, businesses can make more money without necessarily improving profit margins--by increasing the volume of sales. In fact, XOM's profit margin is below the average profit margin of most banks and (pre-collapse) investment firms, and it's about half that of pharmaceutical companies.

    Finally, it seems that those who call for a "windfall" tax or the even more confounding "regulation of profit margins" seem to studiously ignore two major points: Not only is the big, bad corporation owned (directly or indirectly) by pretty much everybody with a retirement plan, but XOM also paid the highest income tax ever last quarter.     Reply
  • commenter
    HcB3
    May 13 11:54 PM
    Merck's Ghost Story [view article]
    You improperly use the term "lifestyle drugs" for preventative therapies. Lifestyle drugs are just what the term suggests, drugs that treat minor conditions that do not affect overall health, only "quality of life", such as baldness. Reply
  • commenter
    PharmD/PhD
    Student
    May 13 10:47 PM
    Aegerion Pharmaceuticals: Capitalize on Cholesterol [view article]
    I do not have much optimism for this drug candidate. It is as some of you put it" a me too" type drug with obvious approval hurdles from the increased lipid content of hepatic tissue, further reinforced by the FDA's recent letter to Isis Pharmaceuticals raising the bar for approval of their Mipomersen candidate for the same indications. However, Mipomersen has several advantages over AEGR-733.
    1st its a novel and unique Mechanism of Action using antisense RNA strands to reduce the expression of vital components of highly atherogenic LDL protein components targeting the problem at the SOURCE, NOT at a downstream stage in the pathway.

    BUY ISIS forget this junk stock, Im shorting it tomorrow.     Reply
  • commenter
    Dikidikido
    May 13 02:10 PM
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    If Ford is offering the "gas cap" why is Chrysler spending all of the media money. I think I got the wrong batch of "kool-aid"..... Reply
  • commenter
    stonebluff
    May 13 11:30 AM
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    l. It's a little naive to suppose that it's harmful to the US for foreigners to buy property from us. I represented foreigners investing here for years, and usually they seemed to me to be overpaying. We Americans do a pretty good job of pricing our stuff.

    2. How can anyone think that the interposition of an insurance company between the patient and doctor or hospital do anything but add to the costs of medical care? The first thing we should do is make medical expenses deductible for income tax calculations again. Then we should recognized that we're all going to die. Then we should recognized that medical people are humans dealing with
    mechanisms of which they have little understanding. Then one can begin to discuss healthcare rationally.     Reply
  • commenter
    interested
    bystander
    May 13 10:57 AM
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    Good discussion, minus the rants and insults. Personally, I agree with most of what the author has to say, but there's one issue that has been left out: The oil industry has HUGE barriers to entry! Can anyone name a new player in the refining/oil discovery/ gas retail business? No, there are none. So there goes your free markets. Those who control oil are labeled cartels, rightly so, as pricing behavior is now tantamount to that of a monopoly controlled industry.

    The fact that there are record profits during record prices bears this out. If anyone could enter the market to get a piece of the action, they certainly would. Instead consumers are left to fend for themselves.

    The person who wrote that cars are not necessary items is simply deluding himself. I, like many, live 10 miles from the nearest bus stop or food store. How am I supposed to get to work or feed my family without a vehicle? Or has food and a salary become optional in today's society? (And no, biodiesal is not an option. We just don't eat that many french fries in my house.)

    So, we have a necessary commodity being sold by a monopolyish industry where prices are spiraling out of control. Yes, the markets will eventually deliver us fusion energy and electric cars, but there's a lot of people out there who could lose their homes and families before that happens.

    Those who say the government is useless -- that makes sense to you except in Iraq, right? I spent 11 years in the Air Force, and I know that there are some things the government does really well, and some where it needs to stay clear. The FCC has a pretty good track record for breaking up monopolies (yes they're not perfect). The government should be acting now to provide some defense for the now gas-addicted public until the market sorts things out.

    There've been few decent ideas IMO. The gas tax holiday is preposterous. A windfall profit tax, in and of itself, will not be helpful. The government can and should develop an energy policy (it really has none, now) that includes a system of taxes, credits, and perhaps some regulation to reward behaviour that stimulates alternative energy. There's more need for carrot than stick. Those of us that are paying nearly $4 a gallon are already getting the stick.

    One area in which I would look at direct regulation would be the energy futures markets. These markets were sold to the public on the basis that they would stabilize prices in the long run by allowing large users to hedge their costs. That no longer happens -- look at the airlines, nearly all of whom are minimally hedged, because their pricing models don't anticipate the kind of behaviour we currently see in these markets. Yes, those managements are partly to blame in not realizing that the models have broken down, but a manager should not be required to be clearvoyant to run their business (at least not all the time). The futures markets have become corrupted by the codependant relationship they enjoy with the retailers of energy, and the consumer is left holding the bag. It's not a free market. It's not fair. And it's not in the best interest of our country or economy. Just my 2 (okay 3) cents worth.

    Reply
  • commenter
    CLH
    May 13 09:34 AM
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    You are right you are not a liberal but instead a socialist. The oil companies ARE doing their job. Back in the early 1970s the gov controled the oil price and there was no oil to be had. Keep the gov out. Reply
  • commenter
    Joyful
    Alternative
    May 13 08:50 AM
    My Website
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    Entrepreneurial activity will blossom beyond any libertarian's dreams if only this country somehow manages to establish single-payer health insurance. Reply
  • commenter
    Mike Stathis
    May 12 11:26 PM
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    Response to Simple Simon: Very well said! You get it Simon. And yes, for some reason I seemed to have made some people upset. All I was trying to do is relate some big picture trends to investment themes. Reply
  • commenter
    carlivar
    May 12 11:21 PM
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    A few thoughts:

    -Quit the tiresome left-right finger-pointing. Mike is obviously neither a Rebublicrat or a Democan. Anyone who thinks either party can fix things is seriously deluded. Ironically the real problem isn't a monopoly by Big Oil -- it's a monopoly by the Big Parties in Washington. I would quote the Constitution, but I think America is more interested in American Idol.

    -Government regulation of Big Oil would be a completely unnecessary, harmful, knee-jerk reaction. The market is already fixing the problem. Hybrids are the short-term fix. Electric cars will be the long-term fix. Even GM finally woke up and is working on the Chevy Volt. Look at Tesla Motors. The free market fixes stuff, but you can't expect it to happen overnight. We've had $3 gas for less than a year! Sheesh, give it a little time. Doesn't anyone think past the next 3 months anymore?

    -No one is forcing you to buy gas. Buy a diesel car and convert it to run on bulk vegetable oil from Costco. Or, and I know this is just *crazy talk* - we could divert the money from Iraq into public urban transportation (or at least maintenance on bridges in places like Minnesota).

    -One reason that healthcare is broken is because our legal system is broken. We need to stop trying to fix symptoms and start fixing core problems, like out-of-control litigation. The hospital has to charge $28 for aspirin in order to pay for its liability insurance.
     Reply
  • commenter
    feather
    merchant
    May 12 11:17 PM
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    It obviously took a extremely well educated individual to generate such a simple article written thoughtfulness and depth of a mud puddle!
    Did someone take your lollipops away and make you angry?
    Oh wise sage - please provide more enlightenment as you see fit.     Reply
  • commenter
    Simple Simon
    May 12 10:30 PM
    My Website
    Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy [view article]
    Brother, did you stir the pot! Let me complement you on a few things. The Big Three auto makers summary is accurate. "Disregard for the consumer" you mention on their part may go down in history as something pandemic among our "latter day" corporate mind set/conspicuous status conciousness...no need to belabor the golden parachute for execs who ran the company in the ditch. I'm pointing to what I would call the mind disease of this turn of the millenia. The American Indian had it right when they described the pale face as "Wasichu"-wh... means spider= busy spinning webs of deceipt for the purpose of capturing and sucking dry the hapless churl, the brand racists, and the body worshiping desperate hosuewives, drooling over 'the lives of the rich and famous'- and damn morality, full speed ahead. I wonder if anyone ever really took their "Business Ethics" class seriously.
    Today we watch with glazed eye as thousands of homes are systematically destroyed by fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, hurricane, and mortgage meltdown...and think it will not happen to us! A clue...it will keep happening, and even accelerate until we all fall back and rethink this whole thing. Is it really important to buy the Hummer, and the million and a quarter home, on lots "starting in the low $300,000"? Has anyone really evaluated why we are called "the great Satan"? Porn anyone? How about a trip to Vegas where nothing you do will ever come to light...a clue...every move you make in Vegas is recorded on video. And the whole world is tune in to be entertianed by our stumbling, wretched collapse.     Reply

Trading Center