Merck & Co., the third-largest US drug maker, reported a better-than-expected profit on Monday, supported by sales of its vaccines and cholesterol drugs.
Sales of the Readington, New Jersey company's vaccines more than doubled in the quarter, outperforming analysts’ expectations.
The results provided the latest sign of success for Merck's new products and restructuring efforts.
Merck said it earned $1.53 billion, or 70 cents per share, compared with $941 million, or 43 cents per share, in the year-ago period when it took a $598 million charge for legal expenses related to its withdrawn Vioxx arthritis drug.
Excluding restructuring charges, Merck earned 75 cents per share, ahead of the 69 cents per share average expected.
Sales
Sales also climbed twelve percent to $6.07 billion in the quarter.
The company's top-selling asthma medication Singulair came in at $1 billion, up 17 percent from the 2006 quarter whilst sales of cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin sold in a joint venture with Schering-Plough Corp jumped 26 percent to $1.3 billion.
Recently-approved vaccines also helped to boost vaccine sales to $1.2 billion, up from $555 million last year.
Its new cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, saw sales jump to $418 million whilst RotaTeq, a recently-launched pediatric vaccine, had sales of $171 million.
Merck raised its 2007 earnings forecast to 3.08 to $3.14, excluding the restructuring charges related to site closures and position eliminations. It previously forecast $3 to $3.10 per share.
October 23 2007
Related Links
Merck & Co
Bookmark with:
- Digg
- Reddit
- Del.icio.us
- Facebook
- Newsvine
Sign Up to Exec UK now for FREE!