Merck Raises 2022 Forecast as COVID Pill, Cancer Drug Fuels Profit Beat

[claireokc]

Merck & Co. on Thursday reported quarterly profit and sales that beat estimates and raised its full-year forecasts on strong demand for top-selling cancer drug Keytruda, its Gardasil vaccine and COVID-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir. The U.S. drugmaker’s shares rose 1.8 percent to $85.90 before the opening bell as revenue rose 50 percent to $15.9 billion, with most of the growth coming from sales of molnupiravir, which was approved in November. Analysts had expected sales of $14.7 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Excluding molnupiravir sales, revenue grew 19 percent in the first quarter. The company now expects molnupiravir sales of between $5 billion to $5.5 billion, a cut to the upper end of its previous range of $5 billion to $6 billion. ...

Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/merck-rai ... 34844.html