For the love of money....BMS, Roche, and Merck

Money, money, money, money....O'Jays

(Click the link above...and let it roll while you read below!!!)

Money, money, money, MONEY
Some people got to have it
Hey, hey, hey...some people really need it.
Hey, listen to me, y'all do thangs, do thangs, do thangs - bad thangs with it
Well, you wanna do thangs, do thangs, do thangs - good thangs with it - yeah

FierceBiotech:  MK-3475, Merck.  October 8, 2013. By John Carroll
Peak sales potential:  Maybe $500 million for melanoma with the blockbuster money coming if a whole lineup of cancers is added.    The scoop:  Merck needs this one badly... Under growing pressure from Wall Street, which has come to expect nothing but disappointment, delay and failure from Merck over the past few years, the pharma giant is circling its best research wagons around this PD-1 immunotherapy drug.....turning heads at ASCO last summer...barring a big blowup in the clinic, this program has the potential to prove that the company still knows how to do serious drug research effectively.  The stakes are incredibly high, with no room for failure or even temporary delays.

FierceBiotech:  Nivolumab, Bristol-Myers Squibb.  October 8, 2013. By John Carroll
Peak sales potential:  Analysts have pegged peak sales potential at around $6 billion for nivolumab and the breakthrough BMS drug Yervoy.  The scoop:  Two years ago at ASCO the deal makers were circulating the halls in search of new immunotherapy programs to bargain over.  This past summer, the first round of human data started coming in in a big way, and the incredible promise of these therapies to add significantly to survival times, after years of incremental steps, moved drugs like nivolumab directly to center stage in the big cancer meeting in Chicago.  Bristol-Meyers isn't wasting any time in exploring the full potential for this therapy.  It has 6 late stage studies under way for nivolumab, with fast track status in place for melanoma, lung cancer, and kidney cancer.  If the data continue to come in to support these early results, BMS will have a major new therapy to rely on.

FierceBiotech:  MPDL3280A/RG7446, Roche.  October 8, 2013. By John Carroll
Peak sales potential:  As a leader among the top three immunotherapy developers, Roche is widely seen as a top contender for a drug capable of earning $2.5 billion to more than $3 billion a year.  The scoop:  While Merck's MK-3475 and Bristol-Meyers Squibb's nivolumab operate on PD-1, Roche believes it can have the same impact on cancer by hitting the opposite end of the target: PD-L1 .  Roche has an immense amount of cachet in the cancer field.  Its acquisition of Genentech put it in charge of one of the most impressive development outfits in the world.  All leaders in the field are racing ahead, gathering human data in a lunge for early approvals.

All those poor little rich boys, running super rich companies, lurking in the halls of ASCO meetings....all to save the lives of dying, suffering patients.   Right?  I mean, that's what it's all about right?  Not Wall Street.  Not market share.  Not profit margins.  Patients.  Right?  Right?????

For the love of money, People will steal from their mother.
For the love of money, People will rob their own brother.
For the love of money, People can't even walk the streets,
Cause they never know who in the world they're gonna beat
for that mean, oh mean, mean green.

Almighty Dollar!  Cash Money!
For the love of money, Don't let it, don't let money rule ya.
Don't let it, don't let money fool ya. 

"Human data" for big pharma.  Hmmm....  So, that's what I am?  Interesting.  And to think how much I had to pay to be in THEIR trial....to make THEIR numbers look good.  Glad things are looking up for all of them.  Hang in there ratties.  Hang in there.  I always said, long tails come in handy.  - c