Merck Ltd has suffered a setback during the first half ended June 2009 and its net profit declined by 40 per cent to Rs 20.50 crore from Rs 34.19 crore in the corresponding half of the last year. This resulted in lower earning per share of Rs 12.16 as against Rs 20.28 for the period. However, its net sales increased by 24.3 per cent to Rs 234.21 crore from Rs 188.43 crore.

The earning before interest, depreciation and taxation also declined by 30.1 per cent to Rs 36.80 crore from Rs 52.65 crore mainly due to significant higher other expenditure of Rs 76.92 crore as compared to Rs 57.81 crore in the previous period.

The company's pharmaceutical sales moved up by 15.3 per cent during the first half of 2009 from Rs 152.65 crore and its chemicals sales increased by 60.7 per cent to Rs 66.19 crore from Rs 41.20 crore. For the full year ended December 2008, Merck achieved net sales of Rs 389.46 crore and it earned a net profit of Rs 63.01 crore.