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Merck's Frazier sees partnerships, acquisitions as key to building business
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Published: Thursday, January 05, 2012, 10:02 AM
By Susan Todd/The Star-Ledger
Merck CEO Ken Frazier isn't ruling out the possibility of making acquisitions in 2012 as a way of bolstering the company's pipeline of prospective medicines.
"My goal is to augment the pipeline. The way to augment is to find those assets that we can acquire,'' Frazier said during a webcast of a Goldman Sachs healthcare event in New York City. "Typically, for Merck, the sweet spot has been (to acquire them) earlier rather than later.''
"Unquestionably,'' Frazier said, "you should expect more deal activity and more product-driven business development.''
In 2010, Merck purchased Inspire Pharmaceuticals, a specialty drug company.
Frazier also said the nature of areas such as Hepatitis C, where new medicines are developed as cocktail or combination treatments, makes it ripe for potential partnerships. Last year, Merck won approval to sell a new Hepatitis C drug called Victrelis. The drugmaker, which is based in Whitehouse Station, later partnered with Roche on the marketing of the drug.
"The future of the industry is going to be more partnerships,'' Frazier said. "We're going to continue to look for more partners to create the best therapy for patients.''
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