Merck 3Q Profit Rises; Minimal Pandemic Disruption to Production, Distribution
October 27 2020 - 7:26AM
Dow Jones News
By Dave Sebastian
Merck & Co. Inc. said its profit and sales for the September
quarter rose as it continued to work on treatments and vaccines for
Covid-19.
The Kenilworth, N.J.-based pharmaceutical company on Tuesday
posted third-quarter profit of $2.94 billion, or $1.16 a share,
compared with $1.9 billion, or 74 cents a share, in the comparable
quarter last year.
Adjusted earnings were $1.74 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet
were expecting $1.44 a share.
Revenue rose to $12.55 billion from $12.4 billion. Analysts were
looking for $12.21 billion.
"Demand for our products remains robust, and production, supply
and distribution of our medicines, vaccines and animal health
products are moving forward with minimal disruption," Chairman and
Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier said.
Merck is working on two vaccine candidates, along with an
antiviral treatment for people who fall ill from Covid-19. Last
month, Merck began testing its first vaccine in humans and results
could come by November. It hopes to produce a single-dose vaccine,
perhaps one that can be administered orally. That could make a
vaccine easier to scale up for mass vaccinations than the shots
some rivals are testing, some of which require more than one
dose.
Chief executives of Merck and eight other drugmakers in
September signed a pledge promising not to file for regulatory
approval or authorization of their experimental Covid-19 vaccines
until the shots have been shown to work safely through late-stage
clinical testing.
Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 27, 2020 07:11 ET (11:11 GMT)
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