Merck
Third-Quarter Profit Jumps 62%

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)