WSJ Gets It Right — About Merck’s Q2 2009 Prospects

Here it is — from just an hour ago, per The Wall Street Journal’s reporting:

. . . .Merck & Co. (MRK) – reports July 21

Wall Street Expectations: Analysts see the company reporting earnings, excluding items, of 77 cents a share on revenue of $5.84 billion. Prior-year earnings, including restructuring charges, came to 82 cents a share on revenue of $6.05 billion.

Key Issues: Merck’s $45.3 billion cash-and-stock deal to acquire Schering-Plough Corp. (SGP) remains on track for a fourth-quarter close, according to the companies, despite a federal request for more information related mainly to the drug makers’ potentially overlapping animal-health businesses, which Merck has begun shopping. Merck and Schering have a cholesterol-drug venture which has been under pressure because of questions about the safety and effectiveness of the drugs Vytorin and Zetia. . . .

Schering-Plough will report the same morning. Will the Cholesterol Franchise Joint Venture show less than $400 million in sales to Schering, in Q2? If so, CEO Hassan mis-spoke (and, perhaps, misled) analysts and investors, last quarter (look for currencies to have worked against Schering and Merck in Q2 2009, as well).

In any event, I’ll live-blog it all:

Which Industry Spent the Most on Lobbyists, Thus Far, in 2009? And 2008? And 2007? And 2006?

Or, “I think you can see where this is going. . . .“

According to the influence in government watchdog-site OpenSecrets.org, it is, and has been, consistently, every year since 1998, the pharmaceutical industry — spending over $1.62 Billion (or $1,620,092,198, more precisely), for over the past ten years. Note that pharma outspends hospitals about two to one, in any given year — but this year, 2009, pharma is on a pace to outspend hospitals three to one.

In any event, here is the Lobying Disclosure Act Report data for the First Quarter of 2009, and full-year 2008:

Industry	Q1 2009 $	2008 $ Spent
..	..	..
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	$66,572,765	$234,067,158
Oil & Gas	$44,512,605	$128,959,521
Insurance	$41,370,798	$154,006,322
Electric Utilities	$35,120,775	$159,130,986
Computers/Internet	$29,416,021	$120,411,535
TV/Movies/Music	$25,125,769	$101,575,424
Education	$24,219,889	$104,266,057
Hospitals/Nursing Homes	$23,743,967	$101,059,188
Misc Man. & Dist.	$23,583,965	$98,881,169
Air Transport	$22,805,170	$104,967,502
Business Associations	$22,655,543	$129,963,262

More specifically, here is a PDF file of Schering-Plough’s 2009 Q1 lobying disclosure form. Of interest is the disclosure (on page 6 of 9) that it lobbied the government about a “. . . .response to congressional investigation regarding ENHANCE study. . . .” during Q1 2009 (it also did so, during Q3 2008 and Q4 2008 — on page 9 of those forms).

Geez — I wonder what those efforts looked like. [And yes, full disclosure -- this Washington Post item put me on a track to post this one.]

FDA Approves Generic Version of Schering-Plough’s Norcuron

The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that (as of June 17, 2009) the FDA had approved an ANDA submitted by Sun Pharmaceuticals, to sell a generic version of Norcuron, Schering’s branded muscle relaxant. Teva, Watson, Hospira and Bedford all already market versions of this chemical compound, Vecuronium Bromide:

. . . .Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell generic vecuronium bromide injections, the regulator’s Web site showed Monday.

The drug maker will sell the muscle relaxant injection – a generic version of Schering-Plough Corp.’s (SGP) Norcuron – in 10 milligram and 20 mg doses. . . .

I have been unable to source, thus far, a reliable 2008 revenue figure for Schering’s Norcuron. If I run across one, I’ll post it here. Given that at least four others are making a generic version of this drug, my suspicion is that Norcuron is less than $200 million in annual revenue to Kenilworth, at this point.

Interestingly however, Norcuron is manufactured in the new plant in Oss, the Netherlands, where Schering’s Bridion (sugammadex) is also being manufactured. Bridion, of course, undoes what Norcuron does.