MMD OUTSOURCED!!!!

[Anonymous]

Is is true.....Merck is planning to outsource MMD???

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, but slowly and mostly for the commodity drugs off patent. Nothing new there but it is quite possible that in 10 years MMD will be making only a small fraction of what it is making today. After acquiring the late stage process R&D MMD has let go most of their considerable talent in process technology. They have gone from about the best in the business at small molecule work to being pathetic. This dearth of capability will actually make it more difficult to successfully outsource compounds because the technology transfer will be less efficient. The debacle that resulted in re-acquiring the Cherokee Plant is an interesting view of some of the potential pitfalls ahead in this outsourcing strategy. For their employees, MMD has packaged this obvious move to India and China as the company's strategy to make Merck medicine affordable to 80% of the world's population. How high-minded that is. But if they were that serious about that cost, Willie Deese and his countless VPs would not be pulling the coin they are. MMD will always manufacture in-house (but out of country) as long as US tax policy favors it. That probably will be around for 10 or more years. Unlike some other major pharmas, neither S-P or Merck have seriously tackled their cost of goods for at least 10 years. They used to be very aggressive about that. Today MMD costs about 3-4 times what outsourcing producers would charge.