Going beyond the drugs: Merck KGaA sees breeding better standards as key to maximizing fertility treatments' effectiveness and optimizing Asian growth

As senior vice president for the global business franchise fertility at German pharma major Merck KGaA (MRK: DE), Dorothea Wenzel has been tasked with deciding what to do now that her company has achieved the “gold standard” drug in this space.

She says that little can be done to improve on Gonal-f (recombinant follitropin alfa for injection) – a treatment developed by Merck-acquired biotech Serono – prescribed to supplement or replace naturally occurring follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), which is essential to treating infertility.

"We see growth rates in China of about 15% in cycles year-by-year"