Company earnings, including one-time items, were 92 cents per share, four cents higher than the average of estimates compiled by Thomson Financial Network.
Still, the $11.03 in third-quarter revenue posted by the world's second-largest drug maker didn't meet the roughly $11.1 billion analysts expected.
The company reported that worldwide sales of its top selling drug, Januvia, a Type 2 diabetes medication, dipped 1% to $1.4 billion in the third quarter.
Similarly, sales of Singulair, a once-a-day oral medication for asthma, dropped 53% to $280 million during the quarter, the firm reported.
However, Merck also said combined sales of Remicade and Simponi, treatments for inflammatory diseases, rose 22% to $700 million. The company also said sales of Gardasil, a vaccine to prevent some diseases caused by the human papillomavirus, were up 15% during the quarter to $665 million.
Merck narrowed its profit forecast to $1.61 to $1.79 per share. The company had forecast $1.84 to $2.05 in July. The company also said it continued to anticipate full-year 2013 sales would be approximately 5% to 6% below last year's levels, with foreign exchange accounting for roughly 2.5% of the decline.
Earlier this month Merck announced it would lay off 8,500 workers, cut $2.5 billion in costs over two years and restructure its research and development efforts.
"We are improving productivity and focusing our R&D and commercial resources more precisely to enable our investments in the best opportunities for innovation and growth," Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier said in a statement issued with Monday's earnings report.
Merck shares were down more than 2.2% at $45.50 in premarket trading about an hour before U.S. financial markets opened Monday.
No comments :
Post a Comment