Not that long ago, Pfizer, the unstoppable Borg collective of pharmaceutical companies, assimilated Wyeth. This time around Merck is swallowing Schering-Plough. It won't be long before New Jersey is just one giant drug company, it's only a matter of which one - Pfizer or Merck. I wouldn't bet against the Borg.
But wait. Mergers are good, do I hear you saying? They focus resources to best effect? Mergers are inevitable and necessary in this economy? Are you crazy? Are you Jim Cramer?
True, ideally a merger could just possibly result in a combination of the best qualities of two companies rolled into one streamlined company shed of the worst qualities of the previous two. In the biopharmaceutical space, it could mean more resources to get needed drugs to market. Sadly, the result is often more like a focused collision that slices away jobs, dumps potential drug candidates, and gives upper management of either company who wish (or are asked) to leave magnificent parachutes of silver and gold. Mostly gold.
You can be sure that jobs at Schering will be lost. Maybe a few at Merck as well. Some drugs with potential to help disease sufferers will be dropped to focus the line. With luck these will be licensed out for development by smaller companies (if there are any left), but some will be shelved and forgotten. And some patients will never see relief.
But that's business. Only blockbuster drugs with the potential for billions in sales will do for a truly large pharmaceutical company. That promising but costly to develop treatment for the distressing disease with only the potential for maybe 50-100 million in sales? Not worth the time or capital. We've got stockholders to please. Sorry.
Man, do I ever have a headache...
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