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Biotech / Medical : Merck -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Epicenter who wrote (1108)	12/10/1998 4:46:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1580

Epicenter, Merck's "challenges " have been around for some time, only last year the Street was still quite pessimistic about Merck's future and the stock was stalled for some time. Then suddenly all the big pharmas are hot again, and Merck has done extremely well this year, with all the worries seemingly gone. Nothing has really changed. Merck's cash is better spent by buying or investing in small promising biotechs than by increasing dividends. Another route is by imitating Pfizer: marketing deals with biotechs, U.S. and foreign (e.g. Japan) for promising drugs. Stepped-up R&D is a right step, but they should have done that a few years ago; Pfizer has been ploughing back a bigger percentage of their profits than Merck.