Topic: How To Invest

Power Growth Investor Hotline – Friday, October 8, 2021

Article Excerpt

MERCK & CO. INC., $80.63, is a #1 Power Buy for 2021. The drugmaker (symbol MRK on New York) is a pharmaceutical leader in oncology, acute-care and animal health drugs as well as vaccines. Merck shares shot up almost 9% this week. That’s after the company and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP said their experimental COVID-19 medication helped prevent high-risk people early in the course of the disease from becoming seriously ill and dying. The pill cut the risk of hospitalization or death in study subjects with mild to moderate COVID-19 by about 50%. The drug, called molnupiravir, was performing so well in its late-stage trial that Merck and privately held Ridgeback stopped enrolling subjects after discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Merck said that 14.1% of those who had received a placebo were either hospitalized or dead after 29 days, compared with 7.3% of those who had received its drug, molnupiravir. The Phase 3 trial analyzed data from 755 patients…