Latest news with #patentcliff
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Does This Move Make Merck Stock a Buy?
Key Points Merck is seeking ways to prepare for a significant upcoming patent cliff. The company has just announced another acquisition that will help it achieve that goal. With its newer products, strong dividend, and reasonable valuation, Merck still looks attractive. 10 stocks we like better than Merck › Merck (NYSE: MRK), a leading pharmaceutical company, generates consistent revenue and profits. However, the stock has been under pressure over the past year due to its reliance on Keytruda, its famous cancer medicine. It might be the best-selling drug in the world, but Keytruda will experience a patent cliff by the end of the decade -- a significant risk investors have to take into consideration. Merck has been looking for ways to mitigate the risk of competition, and the drugmaker just made a move that could help along those lines. Should investors consider buying the stock? Merck dishes $10 billion to expand its lineup On July 9, Merck announced that it would acquire Verona Pharma, a U.K.-based biotechnology company specializing in the development of medicines for respiratory diseases. Merck will pay $10 billion in cash for this transaction, allowing it to add Ohtuvayre -- which treats chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) -- to its portfolio. First approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year, Ohtuvayre is a treatment for COPD that looks highly promising. It has so far had a successful launch, and it is still being investigated across other conditions, which could later lead to label expansions. Though estimates vary (as always), some analysts think Ohtuvayre sales could peak at around $4 billion. So, it seems the company has yet another blockbuster on its hands. But will that be enough to replace Keytruda? Merck's multipronged approach Merck has entered into several such agreements in recent years. In 2021, it acquired Acceleron Pharma for $11.5 billion. This deal eventually allowed it to launch Winrevair, a medicine for pulmonary arterial tension. Winrevair is yet another promising therapy, with projected peak sales at around $3 billion. Between Ohtuvayre and Winrevair, that's at most $7 billion in peak annual revenue, though, much lower than the $29.5 billion in sales Keytruda generated last year. Merck will need far more than that, but the company does have a plan. Some of its acquisitions have yet to yield approved products with blockbuster potential. In 2023, the company paid $10.8 billion for Prometheus Biosciences and its promising candidate for ulcerative colitis, MK-7240. That could be another great addition to the company's portfolio, provided it aces enough clinical trials to land regulatory approval from the FDA. Merck isn't just relying on buyouts to plan for its post-Keytruda life, though. One of the company's most important internally developed projects is a subcutaneous (SC) version of its crown jewel. SC Keytruda recently aced a phase 3 clinical trial in which it proved noninferiority compared to the original, intravenous version of the medicine in treating patients with non-small cell lung cancer, one of Keytruda's most important markets. The newer version of the cancer therapy does have some advantages over the old, though, including significantly cutting the time patients spend in the treatment room and the time physicians spend preparing the therapy, administering it, and monitoring patients afterward. SC Keytruda should attract plenty of business across many of the original's indications once all is said and done. And, together with the newer therapies Merck now has under its banner, should allow the company to smooth out the losses once biosimilar competition for Keytruda enters the market. The stock could perform well post-Keytruda Merck currently has more than 80 programs across its phase 2 and phase 3 pipeline. So, even beyond the candidates mentioned, the company should be able to find new gems. Putting aside label expansions for existing medicines, even a 25% success rate on brand-new clinical compounds should translate to several novel launches over the next five years. Not all will be blockbusters, but Merck's deep pipeline and recent moves show that it is capable of moving beyond Keytruda. Additionally, there are other reasons to consider buying the stock. First, Merck's shares look incredibly cheap right now. The company is trading at 9.3 times forward earnings estimates. The average for the healthcare sector is 16.2. Second, Merck is a solid dividend stock. The company's forward yield sits around 4%, and it has increased its payouts by 88.8% in the past decade. Merck's shares have lagged the market over the past year, but the company's prospects are still strong, at least for those willing to hold onto the stock for a while. Should you buy stock in Merck right now? Before you buy stock in Merck, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Merck wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 Prosper Junior Bakiny has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Merck. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Does This Move Make Merck Stock a Buy? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Big pharma's multiple looming patent cliffs: What to know
The pharmaceutical industry is staring down a major patent cliff, with key drugs from Merck (MRK), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) set to lose exclusivity by 2030. Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Anjalee Khemlani and Freedom Capital Markets chief global strategist Jay Woods join Market Domination host Josh Lipton to discuss the industry's risks and how Wall Street is responding. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here. The pharmaceutical industry is bracing for one of its most financially significant patent cliffs in over a decade with multiple blockbuster drugs set to lose exclusivity by 2030. Our team coverage here to break down the impacts these could have on the industry. Got Jay Woods. And we've got Yahoo finances Angela Angeli Angeli Camblani An Sorry with you. Set it up for us An. What are we looking at? We're looking at a number of the, quote unquote, biggest names, and I say that because they are still part of the big pharma club, but not necessarily ones that are favorites or they have sort of lost their steam a little bit, if you will. We're looking at Merck, Pfizer, among the biggest ones, J&J as well, Bristol Myers Squibb, all these names who have been sort of the behemoths of, you know, years past. There's questions about what their future looks like because of these patent cliffs toward the end of the decade. We know Eli Lilly sort of went through their period a few years ago. So what Lily faced before, and it's now clearly made such a huge comeback, that is what everyone else is going through right now. It's the pain of growth and questions of, what do you got for me next? And that's the question Wall Street is basically posing right now. Jay, how you thinking through it? Yeah, I mean, people don't realize this the significance of this cliff ending. Uh you can look at Merck as the perfect example. Viagra was the the big drug back in 2000. Well, guess what? It peaked when Viagra was no longer its own exclusive drug. It was generic. And now we're seeing it come to fruition. You mentioned J&J, that drug is Stelara, mentioned Bristol Myers, Eliquis and Opdivo. Eli Eli Lilly did well. Why? Because they had, as Donald Trump said, the fat shot, his words, not mine. But anyway, what we saw this week was very interesting because Merck did a small acquisition. You know, 10 billions is small for you and I, but they took over a UK company called Verona. I'm sorry, Verona. I'm thinking Corona Friday afternoon. Uh but it's a COPD drug. They're looking for exclusivity. And I think this could heat up M&A activity. The biotech sector starting to catch a bid, starting to turn around. This could be the beginning of something as we head into earning season as well. I don't know about heating up, though. I I would I would pull that back just warming up, maybe. Yeah. It is lukewarm because I mean, yes, it's a big acquisition. We also saw Pfizer make a number of huge acquisitions, 43 billion for Seagen, right? And in that, you saw the potential for blockbusters to fill that gap for their cliff. Keytruda is the nearly 30 billion revenue per year, and they can't fill it with, you know, one acquisition that way. So I think that maybe the companies haven't thought in time to fill the gaps. And it's only really when Wall Street started asking the question, when investors started asking, wait, you have a patent cliff coming up, right? What are you doing about that? Exactly. Well, I'm looking at it the trader point of view. Um, you know, yes, it's not heating up by any margin, but when it's ice cold, you have to turn on the heat. So I think we're starting to get some green shoots. I hate I hate that. But we're starting to see some activity there where people are looking, okay, what could be the next catalyst? And I think M&A is the best one because you look at companies like Pfizer, they haven't really come out with that next big thing. You know, I mean, they had COVID and we saw what they did, and you know, COVID's over. So, uh, we'll see what is next. As a trader, J&J earnings next week, walk me through that setup. Oh, man, I wish I it's a Dow stock. It's been going nowhere in a neutral pattern between 138, 168. Near term, you may get a nice little rally up to the upper end of that channel. But what will be the catalyst to break that stock out? For an investor, if you're looking for a great long-term play, you need this stock to really give you a couple quarters of activity. I don't see it. Uh, so it's one I would stay away from, but if you like good, smart, safe, you know, dividend plays in the Dow, then I give you Johnson and Johnson.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Big pharma braces for revenue headwinds as patent expiries loom
One of the biggest patent cliffs is set to hit the pharmaceutical industry this decade, with major players bracing for a blow to their revenue streams, according to market analysis. A recent report by GlobalData projects that the share of global drug sales under patent protection will decline by 2030. Only 4% of global drugs sales will have patent protection, compared to 12% and 6% in 2022 and 2024. Historically, the loss of patent exclusivity can have big bearings on a company's financial prospects. Biosimilars and generics flood the market upon patent loss, which exerts pricing pressure on the branded product. There has been a push by the Trump administration to increase biosimilar and generic drug use in the US. In May 2025, the US president signed an executive order that overhauled pharmaceutical pricing in the country. According to a Reuters article, pharma companies launched new US drugs at prices 35% higher in 2023, compared to those launched in 2022. Biosimilars and generics can be as much as 80% cheaper than branded alternatives. For example, AbbVie's anti-inflammatory blockbuster Humira (adalimumab) used to be one of the top-selling drugs world, with the drug generating $21.2bn in sales in its last year of market exclusivity. Whilst still a heavyweight in the monoclonal antibody arena, revenue is forecast to slump to $2.6bn by 2030, as per a separate analysis by GlobalData. Other drugs are set to face competition too, with both MSD's Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) Darzalex/Faspro (daratumumab and hyaluronidase-fihj) losing US exclusivity by 2029, representing a particular headwind in oncology. Keytruda, approved to treat a range of solid tumours, was the top selling drug in the world in 2024, netting over $29bn in annual sales. Revenue loss for MSD and J&J's products will contribute to a US drug market that is set to lose over $230bn between this year and 2030. Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is forecast to be most affected by the patent cliff. Anticoagulant Eliquis (apixaban) and immunotherapy Opdivo (nivolumab), two of BMS's blockbuster drugs, account for a significant portion of company's annual revenue. They are both set to lose exclusivity over the next few years, with GlobalData analysts forecasting a dent to BMS's financial outlook. George El-Helou, strategic intelligence analyst at GlobalData, comments: 'More than half of the top 15 pharma companies are expected to face challenges in managing the impact of the upcoming patent cliff. However, some companies have pipeline drugs forecast to offset part of these losses.' A company expected to fare well during this time is Eli Lilly, with revenue forecast to improve by 165% in 2030. This will largely be driven by the company's glucagon like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) tirzepatide, sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound for weight loss and type 2 diabetes respectively. El-Helou noted that pharma companies could strengthen their pipelines by acquiring early-stage biotechs developing promising therapies, increasing investment in R&D, and targeting diseases with high unmet needs. Hannah Hans, head of pharma strategic intelligence at GlobalData, says: 'It is critical to plan from both a patent and regulatory perspective, while also embedding lifecycle management strategies early on in development. This integrated approach will help optimise long term value. The current patent cliff implications on pharma companies include loss of revenue and pricing pressures, however there are several opportunities for companies to focus on innovative therapies and re-defining their portfolio." Hans concludes: 'This opens up a significant opportunity for biotech companies to partner with pharma on next generation therapies, novel delivery platforms and differentiated formulations as companies look to strengthen their pipeline.' "Big pharma braces for revenue headwinds as patent expiries loom" was originally created and published by Pharmaceutical Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
