Credit: REUTERS/Brendan McDermidAdds company outlook, compares with estimates
Oct 27 (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc MRK.N posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday and raised its full-year earnings forecast, driven by resilient demand for its blockbuster cancer therapy Keytruda during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The drugmaker's revenue took a hit at the height of the pandemic as patients avoided hospital visits, denting sales of vaccines, physician-administered drugs and animal health products.
The company said it had taken the majority of the blow in the second quarter.
Merck said it now expects full-year adjusted profit of between $5.91 and $6.01 per share, compared with its prior forecast of between $5.63 to $5.78 per share.
For 2020, Merck now expects an unfavorable impact to revenue of about $2.35 billion due to the pandemic, up from $1.95 billion it had initially estimated.
Excluding items, Merck earned $1.74 per share, beating analysts' average estimates of $1.44 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
(Reporting Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
((manojna.kalyani@thomsonreuters.com; +91 8061822700;))
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