Societe Generale analyst Justin Smith downgraded Merck to Hold from Buy. While the firm acknowledges that Merck has worked hard to try to alleviate concerns about the potential impact of the Keytruda patent expirations at the end of the decade, the firm now thinks the company’s life cycle management strategies for this mega-blockbuster are "too late" and the company’s U.S. cardiovascular pipeline is "still too early" to convince investors. The firm now projects a 50% variance in peak to trough EPS between 2028 and 2032, the analyst noted.
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