Merck & Co, has posted strong growth in net profit during the first quarter ended March 2017. Its net profit went up by 38 per cent to $1,556 million from $1,125 million in the similar period of last year. Its net sales, however, moved only by one per cent to $9,434 million from $9,312 million. The small growth was driven by oncology, hepatitis C and vaccines. Its pharmaceutical sales improved by one per cent to $8,185 million and that of animal health went up by 13 per cent to $939 million from $829 million. The sales of major brands like Januvia/Janumet, Zetia/Vytorin, Isentress declined by 5 per cent, 35 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. EPS improved to $0.56 from $0.40.
The pharmaceutical sales reflect a decrease in the diabetes franchise of Januvia an Janumet, medicines that help lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes, primarily due to the timing of customer purchases in the United States as anticipated for the quarter. Further, sales growth also was offset by the loss o US market exclusivity in 2016 for Zetia, a medicine for lowering LDL cholesterol; Cubicin an I.V. antibiotic; and Nasonex, an inhaled nasal cortiocosteroid for the treatment of nasal allergy symptoms; as well as by the ongoing impact of biosimilar competition in the company's marketing territories in Europe for Remicade. In the aggregate, sales of these products declined by $686 million during the first quarter of 2017 compared to the first quarter of 2016.
Kenneth C Frazier, chairman and CEO, said, “Merck delivered solid performance across our broad range of products that address major disease categories and the needs of global health. The continued momentum of Keytruda in oncology, along with the strength of the vaccine and other franchises and animal health, helped to drive revenue growth in the quarter.”
The company continued to deliver significant progress in the development programme for Keytruda, an anti-PD-1 therapy, receiving key regulatory approvals or opinions and supplemental biologics license application acceptances. The US FDA and European Commission accepted for review three New Drug Application (NDAs) in the company's diabetes franchise for medicines containing ertugliflozin, an investigational SFLT2 inhibitor in development to help improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes as part of Merck's collaboration with Pfizer Inc. Its R&D expenditure increased to $1,796 million from $1,659 million.
The company has narrowed and raised its full-year 2017 EPS range to be between $2.51 and $2.63. It has narrowed and raised its full-year 2017 non-GAAP EPS range to be between $3.76 and $3.88. It has narrowed and raised its full-year 2017 revenue range to be between $39.1 billion and 40.3 billion.