For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 23, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Wal-Mart (WMT), Capital One (COF), Merck (MRK), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Schering Plough (SGP).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s AnalystBlog:

New Jobless Claims Up

This long-term unemployment is an insidious problem for the economy. People who are out of work for just a few weeks really don't have to cut back on their consumption that much, especially if they feel confident that they will have a new job in a short time.

People

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Merck’s (MRK) earnings for the third quarter came in at 90 cents per share, which was ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 82 cents, driven by continued growth of its key products and strict cost management. The company reported revenues of $6 billion, up 2% from the same period in 2008. Revenue would have higher, but for the unfavorable foreign exchange movement, which affected global sales by 3%. Weaker-than-expected sales of Gardasil were offset by significantly stronger-than-anticipated Singulair revenues. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked for additional precautions regarding the risks associated with the use of Merck’s lead product Singulair (as well as other leukotriene inhibitors), including suicide and depression, the drug recorded an increase of 5% compared to the third quarter of 2008. Gardasil, Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine, recorded yet another quarter of lower sales. The company recorded $311 million in ...

The existing alliance between Merck (MRK) and Belgian biotech company Galapagos over metabolic diseases was recently expanded to develop new therapies for atherosclerosis, or hardening of arteries due to cholesterol build-up.

Following the deal, Galapagos will be eligible to receive potential milestone payments exceeding €400 million (approx $597 million). Additionally, the company will receive royalties on commercialization of the products.

Merck and Galapagos entered into a diabetes and obesity drug alliance in January this year. Galapagos was eligible to receive an upfront payment of €1.5 million (approx $2.23 million) and potential milestone payments totaling €170 million (approx $253 million).

Earlier, in October last year, Merck decided to terminate its late-stage obesity drug taranabant after determining that the drug was effective in high doses, which in turn triggered side effects.

Merck entered into another deal with Galapagos in April 2009, under which Galapagos will be using its Silence Select target discovery platform to

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With the merger of Merck (MRK) and Schering-Plough (SGP) scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter this year, Merck is busy with the necessary groundwork. Yesterday, the company announced the new management structure post merger. The current chairman, president and CEO of Merck, Richard T. Clark, will continue to head the combined company. The merged entity will comprise five main divisions -- Global Human Health, Animal Health, Consumer Healthcare, Research and Manufacturing. Global Human Health, the combined company’s largest segment, will be headed by Kenneth Frazier, who is currently heading that division of Merck. This division will include prescription drugs, biologics and vaccines along with an emerging-markets group. Both the Research and Manufacturing segments will be headed by the respective current heads at Merck. The Animal Health and Consumer Health businesses will be headed by executives from Schering-Plough. In the merged entity, about ...

A sharp rebound in Chinese shares helped erase yesterday’s slump and sent Asian stocks sharply higher Thursday, a day after Shanghai’s big fall ignited fears of a Chinese stock collapse and triggered a selling spree around the world.  Asian markets also drew comfort from an overnight recovery on Wall Street after a surprise drop in U.S. crude stockpiles lifted hopes for an economic recovery and sent investors back on the buying table.

Shanghai's main index jumped 126 points, or 4.5%, to 2,911.58, while Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average climbed 179.41 points, or 1.8%, to 10,383.41.  Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 374.63, or 2%, to 20,336.36.  South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2% to 1,576.39.

Stock futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street Thursday.  Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 24, or 0.3%, to 9,300. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures edged up 3.70, or 0.4%, to 1,000.80, while Nasdaq

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On Friday, shareholders of Merck & Co. (MRK) and Schering-Plough Corp. (SGP) gave their nod of approval to the proposed merger of the two drugmakers. The deal, scheduled to close in the fourth quarter of this year, was approved by 99% of voters from each company.

The merger still has to be approved by regulators in the U.S. and other countries before it becomes operational. The $41.1 billion deal will be paid for with a combination of cash and stock.

As a reminder, the two companies entered into the merger agreement in March 2009. Schering-Plough shareholders will receive 0.5767 Merck shares and $10.50 for each stock they own. The companies expect the deal to produce $3.5 billion in annual cost savings as 15% of the combined workforce would be shown the door. The merger is likely to be slightly accretive to earnings in the first year and

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On a stand-alone basis we expect Schering-Plough's (SGP) sales to fall 2% in 2009 due to a significant foreign exchange headwind. Increased competition to prescription Claritin/Clarinex and consumers shifting discretionary spending away from Animal Health and Consumer products will also impact sales growth.We expect EPS to fall 1% in 2009, a more moderate drop than revenues as operating margins benefit from foreign exchange. Gross margins and SG&A and R&D expenses showed a significant benefit from foreign exchange in the first quarter, helping push up EPS 5% on a revenue decline of 6%.While we do not expect the same degree of benefit in the remainder of the year, we believe foreign exchange will help widen operating margins by about 250 basis points in 2009 versus 2008 levels. Operating margins will also benefit from cost-containment from the PTI program.The proposed merger with ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 16, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Community Health Systems Inc. (CYH), Universal Health Services Inc. (UHS), Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), Schering-Plough (SGP) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday's Analyst Blog:

Cuts in Healthcare Spending

The actual breakdown of the $313 billion proposed cuts includes: $110 billion in productivity adjustments to Medicare payment updates; $106 billion in reduced hospital subsidies for treating the uninsured as coverage increases; $75 billion from Medicare

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Based on our earnings model, we expect Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) to post flat EPS growth from 2008 - 2013 due to the combination of patent expirations of key drugs, recent pipeline failures and softening sales of Gardasil and Singulair.The proposed merger with Schering-Plough (SGP) is clearly an attempt to address Merck's slowing sales and EPS growth. Schering-Plough has relatively little exposure to patent cliffs through 2013 and possesses one of the strongest late-stage pipelines in big-pharma.The deal will add immediate synergies relative to the Vytorin/Zetia joint venture and should offer little overlap in currently marketed products and pipeline compounds. Given the minimal product overlap and relative ease in combining the cholesterol business, we would expect the combination to provide significant synergistic opportunities with combining sales, marketing, research and other back-office functions.The merger is expected to be slightly accretive to ...

Another Pipeline Setback For MerckThis morning Merck & Co. (MRK) announced disappointing top-line results of its 2,033-patients phase III PROTECT study of rolofylline (MK-7418), under development for acute heart failure. The candidate failed to meet both the primary (improve symptoms of acute heart failure) and secondary (reduce the risk of death or cardiovascular or renal re-hospitalization 60 days after treatment and reduce the incidence of persistent kidney impairment) endpoints.Acute heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalizations of patients over 65, is associated with a high rate of mortality and currently has few treatment options. Rolofylline showed encouraging efficacy including improvement of shortness of breath and effectiveness in preserving renal function compared to placebo in a phase III dose ranging study. This data was presented at the 2008 American College of Cardiology meeting.We had expected Merck to file for FDA approval of ...