How Big Can Merck's Keytruda Be In Lung Cancer?
Shares of Merck are up 4% on an otherwise down day for pharma stocks. There are three reasons:
Quarterly results that beat analyst expectations. Earnings per share were $0.85, compared to consensus of $0.74; Sales were $9.4 billion compared to expectations of $9 billion.
More importantly: Januvia, Merck's best-selling product, cleared an important safety bar from a clinical trial. This could give Januvia, which generated $1.39 billion by itself and as a combination pill with a generic this quarter, an advantage over competitors.
Merck's new cancer drug, Keytruda, which works by unleashing the immune system for cancer, is performing above analyst expectations.
Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Matthew Herper Source Type: news
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