While Merck did not have any exclusivity in accessing the markers in its
published Index, that was not its objective. Instead, Merck sought to pre-empt
the prospect of small biotech firms patenting these markers, thus inhibiting
Merck’s ability to develop compounds that might turn into new drugs.53 Merck
expected to capture value in its downstream drug development activities and
wanted to create a more open source of inputs in the upstream process of identifying
potential areas to investigate. So it was balancing value creation upstream
in its value chain, while capturing value downstream. This is an instance of what
we mean by open strategy.