Merck merges pharma, consumer health units; aims to ramp up businesses

MUMBAI: German drug maker Merck has merged its pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare businesses as part of a major makeover unique to India aimed at building scale and ramping up local business with a hybrid model.
Merck’s ambition is to push its established primary care and vitamins and mineral supplements businesses alongside new launches from its market-leading fertility and oncology divisions.

Its strategy of uniting the two businesses locally runs counter to some global drug makers that have separated the two businesses.

The German drug maker, also known to be the oldest pharmaceutical company in the world, clocked 17% growth on the 12-month MAT from Sept 2015 to Sept 2016, is ranked the second fastest growing multinational drug firm after Janssen in India.

“We have brought together the portfolios of what we used to call primary care, mainly vitamins and mineral supplements with the portfolio of our consumer health divisions which have major leading brands. So we are consumerising primary health portfolio and that will now represent 70% of our business in India. It is very fast growing and this new approach will be able to capture a very attractive market and much faster,” said Belen Garijo, global CEO at Merck, on her second visit to India in as many years.

In biopharmaceuticals, Merck sells Gonal-F for fertility, Erbitux for cancer and in cardio-metabolic it has Concor as a top selling brand. In the consumer health business Merck has grown 20%, with sales of .`800 crore last year. Its top brands include Neurobion, Seven Seas, Nasivon and Polybion.

Apart from the two categories, Merck’s overall business in India includes products under life sciences and material sciences. The total sales stood at around Rs 2400 crore last year.

The $16 billion drug maker, with a research collaboration with Pfizer for cancer drugs, is hopeful of launching avelumab (for lung cancer) globally next year and work with regulatory bodies to make the drug available in India. Avelumab received breakthrough status from the US FDA and is undergoing advanced clinical trials in India. Merck has a busy schedule for new introductions in India in the next two years.

By mid-2018, the company may look to bring its fertility technologies. In the neuro degenerative diseases, Merck is likely to add Cladribine in 2018 subject to positive outcome and approvals in developed markets. In consumer health, Merck said it may launch ‘Perfect Seven - Seven Seas Man’ and ‘Perfect Seven-Seven Seas Woman in 2017.

Merck has collaboration with Lupin, signed in 2014 to accelerate its general medicine and cardio-metabolic portfolio in emerging markets. Garijo noted the alliance is moving as planned and both two sides want to bring products to market in 2018. She said the alliance with Dr. Reddy's to develop select biosimilars is also moving satisfactorily.