Merck & Co, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, has posted better growth of 19.5 per cent in net profit during the third quarter ended September 2016 to US$ 2,188 million from $1,831 million in the corresponding period of last year. Its worldwide net sales improved by 4.6 per cent to $10,536 million from $10,073 million. EPS worked out to 0.78 as compared to $0.64 in the last period.

Its pharmaceutical sales increased by 5.8 per cent to $9,443 million from $8,925 million in the same quarter of last year on account of higher sales in vaccines, oncology, the cardiovascular franchise and hospital acute care. The sales of animal health division increased by 4.6 per cent to $865 million from $827 million. Though the sales of Januvia/Janumet declined marginally to $1,554 million from $1,576 million, the sales of Gardasil/Gardasil 9 improved by 38 per cent to $860 million. The sales of Zetia/Vytorin increased slightly to $944 million from $936 million. The sales of Keytruda went up sharply to $356 million from $159 million. The sales of Remicade declined by 30 per cent to $311 million from $442 million due to the impact of biosimilar competition in Europe.

Its R&D expenditure increased by 11 per cent to $1.7 billion during the quarter under review primarily due to higher clinical development spending.  

Kenneth C Frazier, chairman and CEO, said, “The latest achievements for Keytruda and other recent regulatory approvals across our portfolio show that our innovation strategy is working. We are confident that our focus on the science, along with continued commercial execution, will drive long-term results for the company and out shareholders.”

The company significantly advanced the clinical development program of Keytruda (pembrolizumab), an anti-PD-1 therapy. Keytruda is now approved in the US. It also received US FDA approval for two supplemental biologics license applications for Keytruda.

For the nine months period ended September 2016, Merck's sales increased by 1.4 per cent to $29,692 million from $29,283 million and net profit moved up sharply by 30.2 per cent to $4,528 million from $3.477 million. EPS worked out to $1.62 against $1.22 in the similar period of last year.

Merck has narrowed and raised its full-year GAAP EPS to be between $2.02 and $2.09. It expects revenue range to be between $39.7 billion and $40.2 billion. As at the end of September it had 68,000 employees worldwide.