Merck to Buy Schering-Plough for $41.1 Billion

[Principessa]

Merck to Buy Schering-Plough for $41.1 Billion

By REUTERS Filed at 6:15 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck (NYSE:MRK) & Co Inc said Monday that it would acquire Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP PRB) (NYSE:SGP) Corp for $41.1 billion, uniting the makers of cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin, in the second megadeal for Big Pharma in weeks. The two New Jersey-based drugmakers, which announced significant job cuts last fall, have been striving to become more efficient amid setbacks to Vytorin and Zetia, whose combined fourth-quarter sales slumped 26 percent.

 

[joyboytoy79]

Am I the only one who's scared that drug companies are worth that much money? Yes, they save lives (sometimes), but just how much money are they making doing it? Is it ethical? So many questions.

And then, they go and merge. Bigger companies with better payed CEO's and a smaller over-all work force HAS to be good for the economy. That's why we don't have anti-trust laws in this country!

 

[snoozan]

Am I the only one who's scared that drug companies are worth that much money? Yes, they save lives (sometimes), but just how much money are they making doing it? Is it ethical? So many questions.

And then, they go and merge. Bigger companies with better payed CEO's and a smaller over-all work force HAS to be good for the economy. That's why we don't have anti-trust laws in this country!

I love Big Pharma.

It is a staggeringly huge number, but larger retailers like Wal-Mart come in at somewhere near 200 billion. And, after all, drug companies are just another huge retailer. I'm not going to start going on about how drug prices are grossly inflated, especially in the US. Almost a separate topic.

I'm also not going to go on about how antipsychotics are marketed to treat everything from autism to depression, nor how I think pharmaceutical advertising is inappropriate.

I love my medication. I'm barely alive without it. Still, I get your concern.

Now go take your pills.

 

[MarkLondon]

Pharmaceutical advertising??? Eeek! Ain't that drug-pushing? Milltown, anyone?