Merck & Co., Inc. has achieved impressive performance during the third quarter ended September 2007 with strong net profit growth of 62 per cent. The net profit reached at US$ 1,526 million from $ 941 million in the corresponding period of last year. The company's sales also moved up by 12 per cent to $6,074 million from $ 5,410 million. Earning per share reached at $ 0.70 during the quarter from $ 0.43 in the last period.

"Our third-quarter results reflect the continued progress Merck is making to deliver on our strategy", said Richard T Clark, president and CEO. "Merck again delivered strong results, including 12 per cent sales growth and double-digit earnings per share growth, fuelled by the performance of singulair, januvia, gardasil, varivax, vytorin and zetia".

In addition, Clark said, "We were very pleased to gain FDA approval of our groundbreaking HIV treatment, Isentress. The approval of this novel HIV integrase inhibitor further underscores the company's ongoing commitment to developing truly innovative new medicines to meet unmet medical needs".

Marketing and administrative expenses were $ 2 billion for the third quarter of 2007. Included in marketing and admi9nistrative expenses is an additional $70 million reserve solely for future Vioxx legal defence costs. Excluding this cost and the additional $598 million reserve for Vioxx legal defence costs recorded in the third quarter of 2006, marketing and administrative expenses increased 6 per cent from the last period. The increase largely reflects the necessary support for new and anticipated product launches.

Research and Development (R&D expenses were $ 1.4 billion for the quarter, an increase of 52 per cent from the third quarater of 2006. The amount for the latest period includes a $ 325 million acquired research charge associated with the purchase of San Diego-based NovaCardia, Inc., which included that company's investigational Phase III compound for acute heart failure, Rolofylline (MK-7418).

For the first nine months of 2007, Merck's sales increased by 8 per cent to $ 17,955 billion and it earned a net profit of $ 4,906 million as against $ 3,960 million, representing a growth of 24 per cent.