Merck HCV: MRL Smoke and BS

[Anonymous]

Yes, that was a fantastic decision by Peter. Koblan eventually was institutionalized for bizarre and inappropriate behavior; Shiver was excited to be named one of many "Floridians to Watch Out For" and then put forward vaccine candidates that were far from ready for primetime; and Daria sat and quietly watched antivirals crumble. Meanwhile the British Rasputin clones swirled around Peter in a dervish fury and left him hallucinating about his greatness and invincibility. All sad, but entertaining.

Koblan was institutionalized? Really? Or just a scurrilous attack. No question on the bizarre and inappropriate behavior.

 

[Anonymous]

Koblan was institutionalized? Really? Or just a scurrilous attack. No question on the bizarre and inappropriate behavior.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jun 07, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that Kenneth Koblan, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, is leaving the company.

"For personal reasons, Ken has decided to return to big pharma, and leave Alnylam. We wish him well in his future endeavors," said John Maraganore, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Alnylam. "We have the highest confidence that our research organization will continue with scientific excellence as we lead the translation of RNAi into an entire new class of medicines."

.... after that meltdown he went to Sunovion, then vanished for a relaxing stay at Happy Hills. No word on where he is now.

 

[Anonymous]

Again, that is Peter Kim's epic misjudgement. The board is very pissed. I doubt he will be replaced soon because the board cannot find anyone of consequence who wants to step into Peter Kim's cesspool.

They haven't done anything in over a decade - why would they start now? It's pretty obvious that the board and Ken Frazier will only listen to Peter saying, "but it's hard everywhere, and it's not my fault".

 

[Anonymous]

Can we please get back to the point. What are the facts behind HCV product line? We know 5172 trials are back on line utilizing lower dose.

Is there any truth to Merck buying a biotech that has a promising nuc NS5A ?

Without a promising second agent from another class to co-formulate with 5172,
Merck might as well fold the tent right now and pursue other therapeutic areas.

GS and BI, maybe ABT will be first on the market with HCV combos for C and the market will be saturated. No other company would be foolish enough to co-formulate with Mrk. MRL/Mrk has no relationships anywhere, proof of concept no HIV co-formulations after 5 years with isentress

We better have some hidden miracle. Goodness knows with a marketing team of Curratto, Zod and Putz, we will not be pulling any rabbits out of anyone's ......ass.

 

[Anonymous]

These days Merck is doing more and more posturing and merely going through the motions that one would expect from a major pharma. And those at the top are sitting there with their fingers crossed hoping for a mega-product before they are found out. But they are failing at building the base of products and extending the lifetimes of the intellectual property they have accumulated. And frankly they have done very little to increase the chances of bringing any blockbuster to market in anything less than industry standard time.

 

[Anonymous]

These days Merck is doing more and more posturing and merely going through the motions that one would expect from a major pharma. And those at the top are sitting there with their fingers crossed hoping for a mega-product before they are found out. But they are failing at building the base of products and extending the lifetimes of the intellectual property they have accumulated. And frankly they have done very little to increase the chances of bringing any blockbuster to market in anything less than industry standard time.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[Anonymous]

No other company would be foolish enough to co-formulate with Mrk. MRL/Mrk has no relationships anywhere, proof of concept no HIV co-formulations after 5 years with isentress

We better have some hidden miracle. Goodness knows with a marketing team of Curratto, Zod and Putz, we will not be pulling any rabbits out of anyone's ......ass.

The Isentriss coformulation debacle is outrageous. So much potential sales volume flushed away.

 

[Anonymous]

Can we please get back to the point. What are the facts behind HCV product line? We know 5172 trials are back on line utilizing lower dose.

Is there any truth to Merck buying a biotech that has a promising nuc NS5A ?

Without a promising second agent from another class to co-formulate with 5172,
Merck might as well fold the tent right now and pursue other therapeutic areas.

GS and BI, maybe ABT will be first on the market with HCV combos for C and the market will be saturated. No other company would be foolish enough to co-formulate with Mrk. MRL/Mrk has no relationships anywhere, proof of concept no HIV co-formulations after 5 years with isentress

We better have some hidden miracle. Goodness knows with a marketing team of Curratto, Zod and Putz, we will not be pulling any rabbits out of anyone's ......ass.

Heres a fact. Gilead will be the first to market. Second, it looks like, will be vertex, but that will be at least 2 years behind. Then who knows. Bottom line is that Gilead will have a 2-3 year lead on us. At that point we will be a me too with similar,maybe, efficacy. If anyone has any other info please post but I'm scared s'less and so are our old friends at Vertex.

 

[Anonymous]

Heres a fact. Gilead will be the first to market. Second, it looks like, will be vertex, but that will be at least 2 years behind. Then who knows. Bottom line is that Gilead will have a 2-3 year lead on us. At that point we will be a me too with similar,maybe, efficacy. If anyone has any other info please post but I'm scared s'less and so are our old friends at Vertex.

Ken and Peter here. Please don't trouble yourself with being scared shitless. Although we at Merck clearly cannot manage to compete in the most promising future of this particular high-margin, customer-focused market, we will be compensating with middle-of the road performance in those almost certainly lucrative no-miss emerging markets. Developing cutting-edge therapies that are a joy to push to market and to push in the market is so 'yesterday'. And who the hell is going to be around 15 years from now anyway. Your only real concern will to convert your real financial concerns of today (and yesterday) into newly-issued and freshly-minted concerns. So for example, your mortgage of today can become an emerging mortgage. And your children's college fees and student loans can become virtual tuition. Have some faith in our new model of business. But of course, at the very top of the corporation we here will be demanding cash. It is one of the perks of the 1%.

 

[Anonymous]

Ken and Peter here. Please don't trouble yourself with being scared shitless. Although we at Merck clearly cannot manage to compete in the most promising future of this particular high-margin, customer-focused market, we will be compensating with middle-of the road performance in those almost certainly lucrative no-miss emerging markets. Developing cutting-edge therapies that are a joy to push to market and to push in the market is so 'yesterday'. And who the hell is going to be around 15 years from now anyway. Your only real concern will to convert your real financial concerns of today (and yesterday) into newly-issued and freshly-minted concerns. So for example, your mortgage of today can become an emerging mortgage. And your children's college fees and student loans can become virtual tuition. Have some faith in our new model of business. But of course, at the very top of the corporation we here will be demanding cash. It is one of the perks of the 1%.

... and we would rather waste $Billions (yes, that's me Peter Kim) on acquiring useless companies rather than entering into lucrative collaborative licensing agreements with companies with a proven product. Our Business Development group is greedy and incompetent, that we know, but we love to pay them huge salaries.

 

[Anonymous]

Heres a fact. Gilead will be the first to market. Second, it looks like, will be vertex, but that will be at least 2 years behind. Then who knows. Bottom line is that Gilead will have a 2-3 year lead on us. At that point we will be a me too with similar,maybe, efficacy. If anyone has any other info please post but I'm scared s'less and so are our old friends at Vertex.

That is very prescient. We have dropped the ball in a big way. In the way that heads should roll instead of balls. What happened to our vaunted HTS and assay development to counterscreen crap? Have we given up?

 

[Anonymous]

All we can do is follow our bald, gap-toothed, ridiculously dressed, bad mannered leader down the crapper. Btw TP, what's the solution to slacking sales? You personally busting reps balls? Management skills second to none. I'd love to see a TP business plan

 

[Anonymous]

Does anyone realize that all of the Merck band 3s are being placed by one Matt Stassberg ?

Elliot Zero, Andre Moxie, Jim Curatto, Lisa French, Scott Dryer, Carrie Bourdow, PeterAlberti, the ones that I am aware of.

Matt, please stop hiring the liars and beggars that stroke you. That is the only talent that this group of miscreants has.

OMG, when are these idiots going to realize that the brown nosers are lying, inept and poorly qualified to lead ???

Matt, learn the line, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice....

You are destroying specialty !!!

 

[Anonymous]

That is very prescient. We have dropped the ball in a big way. In the way that heads should roll instead of balls. What happened to our vaunted HTS and assay development to counterscreen crap? Have we given up?

We're busy building it for WuXi. We're hard at work building in WuXi identical HTS capabilities to our own. No way that could come back to hurt us, right?

You know, because the half-dozen engineers it takes to run the thing are such a huge expense...