“We’ll double Merck medicines in (late-stage development) to 18,” he added,
and get Schering-Plough products that, unlike many of Merck’s
and their competitors’ products, won’t face generic competition for several years.
Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan said in an interview that those drugs include Nasonex, Pegintron for hepatitis, cancer drug Temodar, the Nuvaring contraceptive and the two cholesterol drugs, all of which have patent protection until 2014 or later.