Merck & Co. on Thursday reported quarterly profit and sales that beat estimates and raised its full-year forecasts on strong demand for top-selling cancer drug Keytruda, its Gardasil vaccine and COVID-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir.
The U.S. drugmaker’s shares rose 1.8 percent to $85.90 before the opening bell as revenue rose 50 percent to $15.9 billion, with most of the growth coming from sales of molnupiravir, which was approved in November.
Analysts had expected sales of $14.7 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Excluding molnupiravir sales, revenue grew 19 percent in the first quarter.
The company now expects molnupiravir sales of between $5 billion to $5.5 billion, a cut to the upper end of its previous range of $5 billion to $6 billion.
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