{"id":25965,"date":"2023-04-27T11:36:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T11:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/merck-earnings-better-than-expected-on\/"},"modified":"2023-04-27T11:38:13","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T11:38:13","slug":"merck-beats-first-quarter-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/merck-beats-first-quarter-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Merck beats first-quarter expectations on Keytruda, Gardasil strength"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Reuters) -Drugmaker Merck &amp; Co Inc on Thursday posted better-than-expected results for the first quarter on the strength of its blockbuster cancer immunotherapy Keytruda and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil.<\/p>\n<p>Shares of the company rose 1.8% to $114.98 in premarket trading after the drugmaker raised its full-year forecasts for sales and earnings, citing strong global demand for its drugs.<\/p>\n<p>The company&#8217;s revenue fell year-over-year due to a sharp, but expected, drop in sales from COVID pill molnupiravir, and rose more than 10% excluding that drug. <\/p>\n<p>Merck&#8217;s first-quarter sales fell to $14.5 billion from $15.9 billion last year. Analysts, on average, had expected sales of $13.8 billion, according to Refinitiv data.<\/p>\n<p>Excluding items, Merck earned $1.40 per share, compared with estimates of $1.32 per share.<\/p>\n<p>Keytruda sales rose 20% to $5.8 billion in the quarter, topping the estimates of $5.6 billion. Gardasil sales rose 35% to $2 billion, above expectations of $1.7 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Sales for COVID treatment molnupiravir &#8211; sold under the brand name Lagevrio &#8211; fell to $392 million from $3.2 billion last year. The company has said it expects just $1 billion of molnupiravir sales this year.<\/p>\n<p>It forecast 2023 sales of $57.7 billion to $58.9 billion, up from its previous forecast of $57.2 billion to $58.7 billion. It now expects to earn $6.88 to $7 a share, from $6.80 to $6.95 per share previously. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Merck agreed to buy Prometheus Biosciences Inc for about $10.8 billion, picking up a promising experimental treatment for ulcerative colitis and Crohn&#8217;s disease and building up its presence in immunology.<\/p>\n<p>Merck has been looking for deals to protect itself from eventual revenue loss as patents on Keytruda begin to expire toward the end of the decade. The company reported nearly $21 billion in Keytruda sales last year.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Michael Erman in New York, additional reporting by ; editing by Diane Craft)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/merck-earnings-better-than-expected-on\/signage-is-seen-at-the-merck-co-headquarters-in\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3Q0FB-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3Q0FB-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Reuters) -Drugmaker Merck &amp; Co Inc on Thursday posted better-than-expected results for the first quarter on the strength of its blockbuster cancer immunotherapy Keytruda and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil. Shares of the company rose 1.8% to $114.98 in premarket trading after the drugmaker raised its full-year forecasts for sales and earnings, citing strong global [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-25965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3Q0FB-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25965"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26080,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25965\/revisions\/26080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}