CEO Richard Clark

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc CEO Richard Clark, once viewed as a behind the scenes manufacturing guru expected to merely steer the company through its Vioxx legal woes, has emerged as a major dealmaker. Merck's plan to acquire fellow New Jersey drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp for $41.1 billion is a major strategic shift for a 117-year old company that has boasted a long tradition of avoiding major deals. "Definitely things have changed. It's pretty remarkable how the company is embracing a large acquisition after rejecting them for years," said Michael Krensavage, principal at Krensavage Asset Management. "It certainly is a significant departure ... Read Full Story

MERCK'S GROWTH PILL Another pharma outfit down the hatch: Merck agreed to swallow New Jersey neighbor Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion on Mar. 9, six weeks after Pfizer said it will buy Wyeth for $68 billion. Merck, like Pfizer, faces anemic revenues over the next few years as its top drugs lose patent protection, so Merck CEO Richard Clark aims to grab new products to replace the old. Expect more pharma deals as companies look to beef up to compete with their newly muscled rivals. Next in line: Roche is widely expected to win its four-month campaign for the 44% of Genentech it doesn't already ... Read Full Story

For many people, business success is an elusive dream, that they wish to aspire to, but never seem to achieve. They try every possible way to comprehend the true fundamentals of business and think that it is only a matter of time and success will come their way. Surely, it is only necessary to put in the right amount of effort and the resulting business rewards will be seen immediately. If they constantly show endeavour and wait patiently, then the final outcome can only be a successful business that grows and grows. By getting the marketing message right and giving confidence to your customers ... Read Full Story

Talent, what is it, how can you identify it and then exploit it to its full potential within your organization. A good business leader will carefully scrutinize their organization to identify the hidden talent of their people. Why do they do that? Because they want to be able to have a set of individuals that they can trust to do what is necessary to increase the success of their business. And they want to have confidence in the team behind them. But how do they do that? What do they look for in their people that will allow them to be able to easily ... Read Full Story

According to a Reuters report, the Food and Drug Administration stated that it would be notifying consumers and health care providers alerting them to some 28 cases where infants suffered serious bowel conditions after receiving Merck’s new vaccine to protect against rotavirus. The report from Reuters said, “The FDA said it was not immediately clear how many of the 28 reported cases were Read Full Story