Quote of the day. No balls - no babies

Merck & Co. CEO Kenneth C. Frazier is convinced nearly everyone, from patients to long-term investors, wants the world's third-largest drugmaker to take big risks.

                

So Merck is plunging ahead in one of medicine's toughest challenges — finding a drug to slow Alzheimer's disease — despite repeated failures that have led most drugmakers to halt or scale back research on the No. 6 killer in the U.S. It's a particularly risky strategy because scientists are still unraveling exactly what drives Alzheimer's.

                

"When people question me (and ask) 'Aren't you putting a lot of money at risk for something that's hard?' I say, 'Isn't that exactly what the world wants a company like Merck to do?'" says Frazier, 58.