Slow Down There, Merck

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Merck (NYSE: MRK) CEO Richard Clark says his company is looking to do more deals than ever, perhaps "even try to double" the current rate of 50 per year.

Does that scare you just a little? The company is just days into its integration of Schering-Plough and is already talking about adding more.

Granted, it sounds like another mega, $41 billion deal is off the table and any acquisitions or partnerships would be considerably smaller. Still, I have to question the timing. It seems to me that it'll take at least some time to integrate the two pipelines, figure out which projects look most promising, and scrap the duds. Until Merck does that, I'm not sure how it can know what potential additions would be a good fit for its research and development program.

With about $8 billion in cash and investments to spend, its war chest is behind Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), and sanofi-aventis (NYSE: SNY). Perhaps the rhetoric is nothing more than a scare tactic to try and increase the prices the competition has to pay while Merck spends time integrating its own monster acquisition.

Investors should hope so.

Here's my advice for Clark: Slow down. I know you're all excited to be jumping all the way from the No. 8 spot to the No. 2 spot on the list of largest pharmas. And I'm sure it would be great to reclaim the top spot from Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). But you made the bed. Why don't you try sleeping in it for a little while before you start looking for another company to get into bed with?

That's my take. What do you think? Should Merck hit the ground running, or take a step back? If it is going to buy something, what would be a good fit? Let us know in the comments box below.