Merck beats Q1 forecasts on strong Keytruda demand

(Sharecast News) - Merck & Co beat market forecasts with its first-quarter results on Thursday and raised its full-year guidance on the back of strong growth for Keytruda, its flagship humanised monoclonal antibody (PD-1 inhibitor) used to treat 18 types of cancer. Group revenues rose 5% to $16.29bn, well ahead of the $15.85bn consensus forecast, with Keytruda sales rising 12% over last year to $8.0bn.

Results were also given a boost by sales of Merck's pulmonary arterial hypertension treatment Winrevair, which jumped 88% to $525m, and 13% sales growth from the animal health division.

The firm swung to a loss of $4.24bn, from a $5.08bn profit previously, due to a significant charge related to last year's Cidara Therapeutics acquisition. However, the adjusted loss of $1.28 a share came in above the $1.47 per-share loss expected by the market.

Looking ahead, Merck narrowed and slightly raised the midpoint of its sales guidance to $65.8bn-67.0bn, up from $65.5bn-67.0bn previously.

Despite the Q1 beat, shares were swinging between gains and losses in morning trade on Wall Street, and were down 0.4% at $110.52 by 1620 BST.