Merck & Co.,
the maker of an experimental new HIV drug, posted a
62% increase in its third-quarter profit Monday, as the
drugmaker's revenues increased by double digits.
Merck & Co.
posted a 62% increase in its third-quarter profit Monday,
as the drugmaker's revenues increased by double digits. It
also boosted its full-year earnings forecast.
The Whitehouse
Station, N.J.–based maker of osteoporosis treatment
Fosamax and Singulair for asthma and allergies reported net
income of $1.53 billion, or 70 cents per share, for
the three months ended September 30, up from $940.6
million, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.
Revenues totaled
$6.07 billion, up 12% from $5.4 billion a year ago.
Excluding a
charge for an acquisition and a gain from a patent
settlement, net income would have been 75 cents per share.
Analysts surveyed
by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 69 cents per
share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $6.06
billion.
Its shares rose
69 cents, or 1.3%, to $53.80 in premarket trading.
Sales were led by
Singulair, at $1 billion; the blood pressure medicines
Cozaar and Hyzaar, at $814 million; Fosamax, with $725
million in sales; and several vaccines. Sales of the
cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin hit $1.3 billion,
up 26% from the same period one year ago; Merck markets
the drugs jointly and splits the profits with its partner,
Schering-Plough Corp.
''Our
third-quarter results reflect the continued progress Merck
is making to deliver on our strategy,'' chief
executive officer Richard Clarke said in a statement.
Lower
administration and overhead costs offset more spending on
research and development.
The company
raised its 2007 earnings forecast to a range of $3.08 to
$3.14 per share, excluding 21 cents worth of charges for
plant closures and position eliminations under its
ongoing restructuring program, from an earlier
projection of $3 to $3.10 per share.
Analysts are
expecting earnings per share of $3.07, excluding one-time
items, on average.
However, Vioxx
liability continues to hang over the company, which added
$70 million to its reserves for defending lawsuits over the
blockbuster painkiller it pulled from the market three
years ago. To date, Merck has reserved a total of $1.9
billion for legal expenses. It said it currently faces
about 26,600 lawsuits representing 47,000 plaintiffs, and
about 265 potential class-action cases.
Merck noted its
experimental HIV drug, Isentress, the first in a class
called integrase inhibitors that block the AIDS virus from
infecting cells, got FDA approval earlier this month.
For the first
nine months of the year, net income rose to $4.9 billion,
or $2.24 per share, up 24% from $3.96 billion, or $1.81 per
share, a year earlier. (AP)
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