#4 Merck Serono

Frankfurter Str. 250, D-64293 Darmstadt Germany
Tel: (49) 6151-72-0 Fax: (49) 6151-72-2000
www.merck.de

Headcount	30,968
Year Established	1668
Biopharma Revenues**	$6,111	+39/27%*
Total Revenues	$9,673	+23/12%*
Net Income	$4,825	+284/252%*
R&D Budget***	$1,205	+104/87%*

* Change based on local currency (Euro)
** Included ethical and generic sales in 2006, ethical only in 2007
*** Pharma unit only

 

Top Selling Drugs
Drug	Indication	Sales	(+/-%)
Rebif	MS	$1,670	+15%
Erbitux	oncology	$644	+52%
Concor group	heart failure	$520	+19%
Gonal-f	female fertility	$595	+10%
Glucophage	diabetes	$365	+17%
Serostim	growth deficiency	$223	+7%
Euthyrox	thyroid	$171	+32%

Account for 69% of total pharma sales, down from 80% in 2006.

PROFILE

At a time when several of the industry’s big guns are bulking up on generics, Merck KgA went in the opposite direction last year. In October 2007, the company closed on the $7.0 billion divestiture of its generics unit to Mylan. That unit had sales of $2.6 billion and more than 4,000 employees in 2006.

Why the exit? To help pay down its September 2006 purchase of Serono, a $13.3 billion move that established Merck Serono and created a new player on our Top Biopharmas list. The new MS makes more than half its revenues from bio-drugs, and focuses its pipeline on oncology, neurologic diseases, fertility, endocrinology, cardiometabolic care.

The acquisition made the new MS a biopharma player, but it also opened the U.S. market to Merck, which saw sales in that region grow 237% in 2007.

MS doesn’t have U.S. rights to its #2 seller, cancer treatment Erbitux, but that hasn’t slowed growth of the MAb that once led to Martha Stewart’s imprisonment. MS’s sales of the drug were up 52% in 2007 and 33% in 1Q08, outpacing the performance of lead drug Rebif, which posted increases of 15% and 11% in those timeframes. In June 2008, MS applied to expand Erbitux’s label in the EU after strong trial results.

In October 2007, MS signed an agreement with co-developers ImClone and Bristol-Myers Squibb to jointly market Erbitux in Japan, pending approval there. Merck will receive 50% of profits (and/or pay for half the losses), while the partners will each get 25%. In June 2008, MS signed a pact with BMS to market, sell and distribute 30 of Bristol’s products in Latin America.

Serono was considered a consolation prize for Merck KgA after it struck out in its attempt at buying Schering AG. Bayer was declared the winner in that battle, but it looks like Merck Serono made out pretty well for losing.

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For the full profile, including pipeline and patent information, download the PDF.