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Can Merck Serono Bounce Back?

Merck KGAA’s $13 billion acquisition of Serono in 2006 created an unwieldy pharmaceutical organization further hobbled by expensive clinical setbacks. Seven years later, driven by new leadership, it is in the midst of an overdue transformation.

In 2006, Merck KGAA knew it badly needed to boost its specialty pharmaceutical business, which relied heavily on partial rights to one potential blockbuster oncology asset, Erbitux (cetuximab). That spring it tried to take over compatriot Schering AG, only to be outbid by a friendly Bayer AG. Unbowed – or increasingly restless – in September that year it turned to Serono’s controlling Bertarelli family and quickly brokered a surprise deal that seemed to have the potential to create a mid-sized pharma powerhouse, one with global reach and blockbuster specialty franchises, a diversified therapeutic base, and an honest-to-goodness shot at sustainable growth. (SeeAlso see "European Consolidation: Serious Competition for Big Pharma?" - In Vivo, 1 October, 2006..)

But something went wrong on the road to success.

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