Pfizer Inc. (PFE) Financial News - Merck Options Are Most Bearish Since 2006 Before Earnings
Pfizer Inc. (PFE)
Merck Options Are Most Bearish Since 2006 Before Earnings
2011-07-29 01:17:58
Quote: Pfizer Inc. (PFE) CEO who began his job a month
before Frazier, has his New York-based company pursuing the sale
or spinoff of at least two businesses as it faces patent losses
on the cholesterol treatment Lipitor, the world’s best-selling
drug, in November. No such plan has come from Frazier, who has
only said he won’t rule out unit sales as he faces lost revenue
next year from Singulair, with $5 billion in 2010 sales.
Whitehouse StationNew Jersey, reports
earnings tomorrow. Its puts cost 42 percent more than calls,
near the 49 percent level reached July 25. That figure was the
most since October 2006, Bloomberg data show.
New York, said in a telephone
interview. “People are waiting to see what Ken Frazier views
the future of Merck as.â€
Merck shares have declined 3.1 percent this year while
Pfizer’s shares jumped 11 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500
Index advanced 3.4 percent while health-care stocks in the
benchmark measure of U.S. shares climbed 8.7 percent.
Three Options
Merck has three opportunities to improve performance,
Polischuk said. It could sell some divisions or older products
as Pfizer is doing, it could acquire more companies, or it could
focus on research over the long term and hope that its pipeline
comes through despite recent stumbles, Polischuk said.
Frazier “just hasn’t tipped his hand yet on which it is
going to be,†he said.
Steven Campanini, a spokesman for Merck, declined to
comment.
Seamus Fernandez,
an analyst at Leerink Swann & Co. Pfizer’s animal health unit
had sales last year of $3.48 billion.
Singulair next year will follow Merck’s Cozaar and Hyzaar
blood pressure medicines, which went off-patent in 2010,
resulting in a 57 percent sales drop in the fourth quarter.
Drug Pipeline
This year, Merck has reported setbacks in its experimental
drug pipeline. In January, it halted a trial of the bloodthinner
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