Free Republic

Merck & Co. is buying Schering-Plough Corp. for $41.1 billion in stock and cash in a deal that gives the companies more firepower to compete in a drug industry facing slumping sales, tough generic competition and intense pricing pressures. The deal announced Monday would unite the maker of asthma drug Singulair with the maker of allergy medicine Nasonex and form the world's second-largest prescription drugmaker. Merck and Schering are already partners in a pair of popular cholesterol fighters, Vytorin and Zetia. The latest combination comes only a few weeks after Pfizer Inc. announced it has agreed to pay $68 billion...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. fell to record lows Monday, as analysts warned new clinical data would cause sales of their blockbuster cholesterol drug Vytorin to fall further. The companies market Vytorin through a joint venture, but earlier this year, partial results from a clinical study showed that it was no more effective at limiting plaque buildup than Merck's Zocor, a drug that is already available in generic form. Full results of that study were released Sunday. Vytorin is a combination of Zocor and Schering-Plough's drug Zetia. Schering-Plough shares plunged as low as...

Several recent news stories have raised concerns about two pharmaceutical manufacturers releasing new versions of two of the most popular prescription drugs in the country: Claritin and Prilosec. Schering-Plough's (SGP) best seller Claritin goes off patent at the end of this year. As a result, drug companies that produce generic drugs, which are copies of a brand-name drug but usually cost substantially less, can begin to sell their generic versions. Similarly, AstraZeneca (AZN) is replacing its blockbuster drug Prilosec with its new drug Nexium. Some medical professionals have criticized Schering-Plough and AstraZeneca for not proving in clinical trials that their...