Merck Is Shopping for Smarts In Hep C

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tdp2664 InvestorPlace When the dust finally settles in the battle for preeminence in the hepatitis C market, Merck (NYSE: MRK ) aims to be on top. And the company has made it clear it will do anything and everything to make certain it emerges as the leader in a market that could approach $20 billion worldwide by 2020. "We would consider small deals to large deals — whatever is necessary to lead in hepatitis ," Roger Pomerantz, the drugmaker's worldwide head of licensing and acquisitions, said in an interview this week at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, according to Bloomberg. Merck's willingness to pull out all the stops in the hepatitis C race could mean the company has its sights set on one of the two small drug developers in the field that haven't already been gobbled up. As we noted in an article earlier this week , the two companies are Idenix Pharmaceuticals