admin @ Tue, 2005-10-25 06:46
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Merck KGaA, Germany's No. 4 drugmaker, said third-quarter profit jumped 57 percent, helped by a 60 million-euro ($72 million) license payment from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. for its experimental cancer drug matuzumab.
Net income rose to 181.5 million euros, or 95 cents a share, from 115.6 million euros, or 61 cents a share a year earlier, the Darmstadt, Germany-based company said today in a statement. That beat the 175 million euros expected by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Sales rose 8.8 percent to 1.47 billion euros, compared with the 1.46 billion euros analysts were expecting.
Merck is building a portfolio of cancer therapies to add to the colon cancer drug Erbitux, which generated 59 million euros in third-quarter sales. In September, it formed a research and marketing partnership with Japan's Takeda to speed development of matuzumab, an antibody-based cancer treatment. Merck is using profits from its liquid crystals business and sales from its generic drugs unit to maintain growth while it invests in new medicines.
``Merck expects its positive business development trend to continue,'' the company said in the statement. As a result of its third-quarter performance, Merck adjusted its full-year sales forecast, saying it now expects ``high single-digit'' growth compared with its previous forecast for a single-digit percentage rise in revenue.
The company expects Erbitux sales to exceed 200 million this year. It's seeking regulatory approval of the drug as a treatment for head and neck cancers in a bid to widen the use and sales potential of the drug it developed with U.S. biotechnology company ImClone Systems Inc.
While the operating profit margin from liquid crystals, Merck's most profitable division, fell to 46.4 percent from 48.4 percent last year, it was higher than the 42.7 percent of the second quarter. Merck's return on sales ``is moving in the right direction,'' it said.
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