Big news from the pharmaceutical industry today, as U.S. pharm giant, Merck, plans to buy internationally strong Schering-Plough for $41 billion. This deal comes on the heels of the Pfizer/Wyeth deal, and proves yet again that a patent portfolio must continue to reinvent itself or else drastic actions must be taken. Merck was facing patent expirations on many of its largest profit-making drugs in the next 3-7 years. Schering-Plough apparently doesn’t have the same exposure to patent phase-outs, and its sales are largely from international markets outside of the U.S. There is talk, however, that investors for Schering-Plough will want the price at least another $10 billion higher. We will have to watch and see what happens on that front, but for now, another large pharm company expands its patent roster . . .
Ian McClure is a former corporate & securities and intellectual property law attorney with 
Trevor M. Blum is a former Associate in the Chicago-based, valuation practice group of Ocean Tomo, LLC., an intellectual property (IP) consultancy. Additionally, he provided instrumental research support to Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc., an IP exchange start-up. Trevor holds a B.S. from Indiana University and is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Cambridge, focusing on international business and finance. His interests also include entrepreneurship, economics, and informational visualization. He enjoys running and cycling in his free time. Trevor seeks to bring a transnational business perspective to the blog. 
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