This is a few days old, but it will complete the record, here -- just couldn't get to it before (as a new graphic was needed). From BusinessWeek, of September 28, 2011 then:
. . . .Johnson & Johnson bought Merck & Co.’s half of the companies’ joint venture for over-the-counter medicines for heartburn and digestive diseases for $175 million, ending a 22-year partnership in the U.S. and Canada.
The deal. . . includes a manufacturing plant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that is part of a consent decree with U.S. regulators because of production violations. J&J, the world’s second-biggest seller of health products after Pfizer Inc., has recalled dozens of drugs and devices in the past two years, including nonprescription medicines such as Tylenol. . . .
So it goes -- this still leaves the recently-restructured prescription relationship on Simponi® (golimumab)/Remicade® in place between the companies, however -- post the arbitration settlement.
Now, Whitehouse Station says New Merck will be freed up to focus upon its legacy Schering-Plough Consumer Health offerings. We shall see.
3 comments:
A sign they are comitted to consumer or now easier to sell/spin off?
I think so.
But CEO Frazier has said they are commited to Consumer Health -- so, we shall see.
I do think Frazier has been clear that Merck will need "a partner" -- to expand the business, and now it is clear that won't be J&J.
Thanks for asking, do stop back.
Namaste
If New Merck is anything like Old Merck, it will spin off the money maker that is consumer care. Look at the value of the mail order pharma business - which benefits from patent expiries - but Old Merck spun off Medco like it was toxic waste.
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