Strong dollar weighs on Merck revenue

The grocery store operator posted revenue of $5.41 billion in the period, which met Street forecasts. Analysts had predicted $273 million.

Separately, the company said it would buy privately held drug developer cCAM Biotherapeutics for $95-million to boost its immuno-oncology pipeline. Analysts had predicted $273 million.

The average estimate among 39 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.81 per share and revenue of $9.74 billion. Arguably the hottest trend in drug development right now is the ongoing research surrounding cancer immunotherapies as both monotherapies and combo therapies.

Merck’s shares were up marginally at US$57.50 on Tuesday in premarket trading.

(An earlier version of this story corrected the approved uses of Merck’s drug Keytruda.). But, what investors are curious about is if all of Merck’s aggressive acquisitions are going to pay dividends for shareholders anytime soon.

The treatment is in the midst of a Phase I study testing its effect on recurrent malignancies, Merck said, including skin, lung, bladder and colorectal cancers.

The offer to purchase Cubist was designed to improve Merckis focus on serious care hospital treatments, which are usually lucrative and should possess a solid longterm view with all the cheap Attention Behave lowering the uninsured price and rendering it simpler for that common National to get health care.

Sales of top product Januvia edged up 1 percent to $1.6 billion, while sales rose 4 percent to $427 million for Gardasil, which protects against sexually transmitted cancers, and 10 percent to a total of $358 million for all its other vaccines. Merck reported sales gains for diabetes drugs Januvia and Janumet, as well as certain vaccines.

Increased competition telling on Januvia/Janumet?

Merck (NYSE:MRK) geared up its marketing after a report of Food and Drug Association (May) that a condition-ketoacidosis is caused by SGLT-2 which requires hospitalisation. Investors will hope it dominates market. In 2013, following the introduction of this new class of diabetes drug, sales growth of Januvia/Janumet flattened.

Following the loss of patent protection on asthma attack prevention therapy Singulair, a blockbuster drug for Merck that raked in $3 billion-plus per year in sales, Merck has been scrambling to find ways to “fill the gap”, so to speak.