Power Alley -- Merck And AZ Are "Neck and Neck" -- In Oncologists' Perceptions Of Leading Immuno- Franchises: Fierce Pharma

We mentioned this last year in May, as well: but for the full year 2024, Merck eeked out a win -- over AZ -- on these same ZoomRx metrics.

Here in 2025, AZ has pulled just a little ahead with a little over a third of the year in the books. Candidly, I am not sure that it means very much, as it weights future products (really R&D efforts, not yet proven out) pretty heavily. [And as we've said many times, oncologists can only prescribe. . . what's available -- not some small batch proof of concept in a say, 50 patient Phase 1 study.]

In eny event, here's that latest updating story, from the fine poeple at Fierce:

. . .AstraZeneca and Merck are still leading the pack when it comes to how oncologists perceive makers of cancer drugs, according to a new report from ZoomRx.

Though Merck edged out AstraZeneca by a single point in last year’s analysis, this year’s version of the annual perception report saw the British Big Pharma pull ahead.

ZoomRx polled 50 experienced oncologists and hemato-oncologists about 20 cancer drugmakers, asking the doctors to rank the top three pharmas in each of 10 attributes, grouped under five core areas: innovation, patient-centricity, reputation, HCP-centricity and promotion. . . . In the overall ratings, AstraZeneca scored a 43. . . Merck was close behind, with a total score of 39. . . .

Now you know. Both companies will -- in any event -- rake in double-digit billions (and -- in Rahway's case, over $28 billion in 2025) for the foreseeable future, from their respective immuno-oncology offerings.

And that is very good news for cancer patients' longer term survival odds.

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