Merck and Generic Biotech Drugs

Merck has announced that it is creating a new division to sell Generic Biotech drugs.
Generic Biotech Drugs are appealing to Big Pharma because the cost to develop and manufacture these types of products are projected to be significantly less than developing a new Drug Compound. However, the revenue from Biotech Generics will be significantly higher than from traditional small molecule Generics. The math is simple...Lower Cost + Higher Revenue = More Profits.
And Merck may have a leg up on their competition in the Biotech Generics arena.
According to the article in Forbes:

"Merck has a killer app when it comes to making copycat proteins (see "Needle Work"). In 2006 it dropped $400 million on privately held GlycoFi to get its hands on a technology that can produce biotech drugs cheaply in yeast, instead of in complex and finicky mammalian cells. Merck wanted the tools for its own drug development. But one of GlycoFi's proofs of concept was a scientific paper showing its method could be used to create a copy of Amgen's Epogen. The paper was published in Science in September 2006. Merck will file a copycat Epogen with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012."