Merck profit surpasses estimates

MERCK REPORTED third-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates as sales of its diabetes treatments helped offset losses from generic competition.

Earnings, excluding one-time items, were 95 cents a share, topping by 2 cents the average of 17 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Net income increased 2 per cent to $1.73 billion, or 56 cents a share, from $1.69 billion, or 55 cents, a year earlier, the New Jersey-based company said yesterday in a statement.

Sales fell 4 per cent to $11.5 billion, slightly below analyst estimates.

Merck made up for the drop in sales by cutting costs, including a lower-than-expected tax rate. The drugmaker has been eliminating thousands of jobs and trying to boost demand of existing products to overcome the revenue drop from Singulair, which began facing competition from cheaper copies in August.

“Merck missed on the top line a bit, but most of the miss was Singulair, which is now off patent in the US and will be in the EU soon so we think most investors will look through this,” said Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst with ISI Group in New York. – (Bloomberg)