Merck & Co out to lead in hepatitis C

US drugs giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) aims to become a leader in the hepatitis C space, the company’s global head of licensing and acquisitions Roger Pomerantz said in an interview with the Bloomberg news service during the J P Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, USA,  this week.

Merck will make whatever deals are necessary to ensure the company leads the race for future hepatitis C combination therapies, said Mr Pomerantz. "Our goal is to be a leader in hepatitis C, and we will do what it takes to get there…We would consider small deals to large deals, whatever is necessary to lead in hepatitis," he said.

The comments came just as Bristol-Myers Squibb kicked off the 2012 acquisition season with a $2.5 billion takeover bid for hepatitis C drug developer Inhibitex (The Pharma Letter January 9) which, interestingly, contains in its terms a provision to stop the latter from soliciting competing offers. It also comes at a time that Gilead Sciences is ready to close on an $11 billion purchase of Pharmasset, aimed at giving Gilead a strong position in the hepatitis C market, currently valued at $3 billion and expected to reach $16 billion by 2015 and $20 billion by 2020.