Profit at Merck Hit as Sales Drop
Merck confirmed the entering of three separate agreements of collaboration with other pharmaceuticals to evaluate the immunotherapy cancer treatment MK-3475 by Merck.
The therapy is part of a new group of experimental drugs that shows promise that unleashes the immune system of the body to target just cancer cells.
Merck said it will collaborate on the studies for the MK-3475 with Pfizer Inc, Incyte Corp and Amgen Inc. The financial terms were not released regarding the collaborations that provide an insight of how future research and development might shape up.
Merck's R&D head, Roger Perlmutter said that Merck was looking to MK-3475 across a number of cancers, both as a therapy that is standalone and well as in combination with other available treatments.
In addition to the work with three other drug makers, Merck said it would start looking to the potential the compound has against 20 different cancers it has yet to be put up against.
In 2014, Merck has forecast earnings per share of between $3.35 and $3.53 along with revenue of between $42.4 billion and $43.2 billion. That compares to analyst estimates of $3.48 per share for profit and revenue over $43.34 billion.
The drug maker expects that expenses for R&D, administration and marketing in 2014 will fall below that of 2014 because of the continuation of prioritizing and focusing on spending on its core line of products and its upcoming launches.
Merck struggled with expirations of patents for its best selling drugs along with setbacks in efforts to bring its new products to market. Those were trends that prompted the company to reduce it employees in an October plan calling for a 20% reduction over two years.
In October, Kenneth Frazier the CEO at Merck said the company would consider cutting out certain businesses and products and left the door ajar to the possibly shedding its consumer health and animal health businesses.
Profit for Merck was $781 million, which was 26 cents per share. That was compared to last year during the same period of $908 million and 30 cents per share.
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