Merck & Co., Inc.’s (NYSE:MRK) new cancer therapy Keytruda posted sales of $83 million during 1Q. The sale was better than expected, however, the total revenue and drug sales have reduced from a year ago.
Keytruda was approved last September and is Merck’s checkpoint inhibitor for advanced melanoma. The sales in 1Q rose 40% from $50 million in 4Q2014. The data was submitted by Merck to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The filing was done to seek expansion of Keytruda’s label to cover the treatment of patients with advanced non-small lung cancer patients. The company will make another filing to the USFDA seeking to expand Keytruda use in newly diagnosed melanoma patients later this year.
Overall, the total sales in 1Q were $9.4 billion which was 8% lower than a year ago. The sales were, however, higher that the Street consensus sale of $9 billion. The lower sales have been attributed by Merck to the effects of foreign exchange.
The pharmaceutical sales of Merck totalled $8.3 billion in 1Q; this represents a fall of 2% from a year ago. If we take away the negative effects of foreign exchange, then the sales would have risen by 5% in 1Q2015.
Janumet and Januvia, Merck’s diabetes drugs’ sales have increased by 4% over the year to $1.4 billion. Merck has announced that an important heart safety study of Januvia has attained its primary goal.
Remicade, Merck’s arthritis drug reported sales of $501 million; this is 17% drop from a year back. The cause for the drop is due to the loss of patent protection and production of copycats in Europe.
The earnings per share of Merck & Co., Inc.’s (NYSE:MRK) for the first quarter is 85 cents which is higher than the 74 cents consensus earnings. The earning is, however, lower that the 88 cents per share the company posted a year back.
