Front Page > World > Article Title/Fixture Title

Front Page > Business

Email | Print | Subscribe

Click-2-Listen

advertisement

Merck stunned after slew of setbacks

"This is probably the silver medal in worst weeks for them," WBB Securities analyst Steve Brozak said Friday after Merck & Co. faced safety questions, FDA rejection and a persistent lawsuit. (Associated Press)

---

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The roller-coaster ride for Merck & Co. shareholders and employees is on another speedy downhill run.

In barely a week, Merck has suffered a stunning streak of setbacks, including federal regulators rejecting two experimental drugs and publicly demanding the drug maker clean up significant problems at its main vaccine plant.

Safety questions cropped up about two other drugs made by Merck. Share prices fell more than $2 last week and are down 35 percent since controversy struck its key cholesterol franchise in mid-January.

Even its $4.85 billion settlement of tens of thousands of lawsuits over withdrawn painkiller Vioxx is dragging on, with the company saying Thursday it is extending the enrollment deadline for U.S. claimants by two months, to June 30.

"This is probably the silver medal in worst weeks for them," WBB Securities analyst Steve Brozak said Friday.

The gold goes to the week in September 2004 when Merck pulled then-blockbuster Vioxx off the market because it doubled risk of heart attacks and strokes — triggering an avalanche of lawsuits and bad press and wiping out more than $30 billion of its stock market capitalization.

Other analysts said while Merck is in a rough patch, the Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company has the resources to withstand it.

Merck's strong business and its restructuring program, which has eliminated more than 7,000 jobs, "have enabled them to weather these blows and deliver on their earnings forecasts," Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan said.

Click-2-Listen

Front Page > Business