Merck & Co decided to raise its full-year revenue forecast on Tuesday after posting better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter. Shares in the company rose by 1% in premarket trading on Tuesday morning.
Sales for Q2 were $15 billion, up from $14.6 billion during the same quarter a year ago. This comes despite a sharp decline in demand for the company’s COVID-19 therapeutic Lagevrio.
Keytruda drug sales for the quarter were $6.3 billion, outpacing the $5.9 billion forecasted by analysts. Sales for the cancer prevention drug Gardasil have surged by 47% to $2.5 billion. In contrast, sales of Lagevrio plummeted from $1.2 billion a year ago to $200 million today.
Despite positive revenue data, the company reported a quarterly adjusted loss of $5.2 billion, or $2.06 a share. This is primarily because of the $10.2 billion forked out by Merck to acquire Prometheus Biosciences. Even with this major expense, the company’s loss still beat analysts’ expectations of a $2.18 loss per share.
Merck now expects full-year sales in the range of $58.6 to $59.6 billion; up from its previous forecast of $57.7 billion to $58.9 billion.