ein wenig mehr käufer täten zur unterstützung der 24 nicht schaden

http://www.intercell.com/fileadmin/user_upload/investors/Multimedia_Events/JP_Morgan_Conf __San_Francisco_2010_01_11-14.pdf

....

http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/ANALYSIS-Mercks-refurbished-drug-pipeline-stands-out-201 0-02-02T222206Z

Merck bzw. Mercks Aktionäre scheinen auch noch auf den ICLL 'Schläfer' staph aureus zu hoffen ...


....
A potential "sleeper" is a vaccine being tested against staph aureus -- a bacterium that causes a wide range of illnesses, including postsurgical wound infections, pneumonia and meningitis, Fernandez said. Merck is collaborating on the vaccine with Intercell AG.

"This would be the first staph aureus vaccine ever, if it succeeds," he said, and could generate potential annual sales of $3 billion.

But Fernandez cautioned that other companies have repeatedly failed in their own quests for this vaccine.

...

full text :


MERCK/ (ANALYSIS)
* New Schering drugs seen driving Merck growth

* TRA blood clot preventer could become a top global brand

* New drugs give Merck good shot at managing patent cliff

By Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK, Feb 2 (Reuters) - As investors bemoan the failure of drugmakers to come up with profitable new products, some believe Merck & Co Inc could break away from the pack thanks largely to promising compounds acquired in its recent merger with Schering-Plough Corp.

Merck's array of experimental drugs could achieve annual revenue of $10.4 billion by 2015, with more than half coming through the Schering-Plough deal, Credit Suisse analyst Catherine Arnold believes.

Merck paid $41 billion for Schering-Plough in November after a number of Merck's own medicines failed clinical trials or suffered damaging setbacks during the past few years, including drugs for asthma, heart failure, obesity, migraine headaches and to raise "good" HDL cholesterol.

"All those drugs blew up. Merck put its eggs in a few baskets and they all ended up not panning out," said Jon LeCroy, an analyst with Hapoalim Securities.

But LeCroy said Merck, fortified with a full cupboard of Schering-Plough products, could likely reverse those ill fortunes.

"Clearly, combining the two research organizations is a big bonus. Merck is the most attractive of the U.S. drugmakers based on long-term prospects," LeCroy said.

Enthusiasm for the deal announced last March has helped boost Merck shares 39 percent in the past year, twice the growth rate of the American Stock Exchange ARCA Pharmaceutical Index .DRG> of large drugmakers.

LeCroy put special emphasis on a blood clot preventer from Schering-Plough called Thrombin Receptor Antagonist, or TRA, that works through a new mechanism and is now in late stage testing.

He said it has the potential to achieve annual sales of $8 billion, similar to the current sales of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's Plavix, an anti-clot pill that is the world's second biggest-selling medicine.

"There's nothing on the market like it and Merck has the drug all to itself," LeCroy said.

If approved, TRA will likely be used with other anti-clot drugs, such as Plavix and aspirin, to prevent a recurrence of heart attacks and strokes.

"I personally think this is the most exciting drug in the drug industry right now," said LeCroy.

He speculated it could be approved by late 2011 if ongoing studies are successful.

MERCK BETTER PLACED

Now the world's second-biggest drug company, Merck is expected to garner 2010 sales of $45 billion.

But Merck needs big new drugs because its $3.4 billion-a-year hypertension pills Cozaar and Hyzaar face generic rivals in April. An even bigger blow looms in 2012, when asthma treatment Singulair -- the company's biggest product with annual sales of $4.5 billion -- faces cheaper copycats.

The Merck brands could lose three-fourths of their sales in the generic onslaught, even as rival drugmakers such as Bristol-Myers, Eli Lilly and Co and Pfizer Inc -- which recently completed its purchase of Wyeth -- face "patent cliffs" on their own biggest products.

Lilly's flagship product, the $5 billion schizophrenia drug, Zyprexa, goes generic as soon as October 2011. Only a month later, the world's top two drugs -- Pfizer's $12 billion-a-year cholesterol treatment Lipitor and Bristol-Myers' $8 billion Plavix -- are expected to be slammed by generics.

"The question is what these companies will look like on the other side of their patent expirations, whether they can bring more drugs to market, and we're optimistic Merck's pipeline will navigate them through," said Edward Jones analyst Linda Bannister.

Bannister expressed particular enthusiasm for TRA and a treatment for hepatitis C called boceprevir. The drugs, which work through new mechanisms, are now in late-stage testing.

Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez considers Merck's pipeline the broadest and best in the industry, although promising compounds could stumble along the way.

A potential "sleeper" is a vaccine being tested against staph aureus -- a bacterium that causes a wide range of illnesses, including postsurgical wound infections, pneumonia and meningitis, Fernandez said. Merck is collaborating on the vaccine with Intercell AG.

"This would be the first staph aureus vaccine ever, if it succeeds," he said, and could generate potential annual sales of $3 billion.

But Fernandez cautioned that other companies have repeatedly failed in their own quests for this vaccine.

Investors are also keeping close tabs on drugs developed in Merck's own laboratories. They include betrixaban, which prevents blood clots that can trigger strokes among patients with irregular heartbeats, and anacetrapib to raise good cholesterol.

Mindful that so many other promising Merck drugs in recent years have run into roadblocks, or fallen off the cliff, Bannister said caution should remain the byword, even for a company whose pipeline now shines as brightly as Merck's.

"What's good today might not be good six months from now. What matters is execution. Are they going to be able to bring these drugs to market and make them successful?" (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; editing by Andre Grenon)