Merck created world’s biggest drug, now has to replace it, Barron’s says

This week’s quarterly results from Merck looked pretty good, all things considered ant there was no immediate reason, then, for the startling selloff that followed, Josh Nathan-Kazis writes in this week’s edition of Barron’s. For Merck investors, the selloff is a warning. Big pharma companies survive-and thrive-on the success of a few big drugs. Any disruption can throw the business into disarray, the author says. The company is facing the largest patent expiration in the industry’s history. Ten years ago, the Food and Drug Administration approved Keytruda, a groundbreaking medicine that promised to turn the body’s own immune system against cancer cells. But a long history of patent expirations in the pharma industry suggests that Merck will face a revenue hole of some $16B by 2029 or 2030, and that’s assuming that multiple things go right, the publication adds.