Merck cancer drug boosts Q4 revenue by 21% year-over-year
Pharmaceutical company Merck (MRK) has reported fourth-quarter earnings, beating top and bottom line estimates with revenue significantly boosted year-over-year by demand for its cancer drug Keytruda. Yahoo Finance’s Brad Smith and Seana Smith take a closer look at the company’s numbers and the future of its product pipeline.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Eyek Ntekim
Video Transcript
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BRAD SMITH: Let's take a look at some trending tickers here as we're starting things off. Merck, you're seeing shares move higher by about 2% after seeing revenue rise 6% year over year, getting a boost from demand for its cancer drug, which saw revenue jump 21% from a year ago. Again, premarket here, shares are moving higher in reaction to this.
One of the things that really kind of jumped out with regard to Merck is the fact that, for the demand that they're continuing to see come through-- and we have to note that the throughline here within this industry has been the oncology businesses across the board, where research and development and demand continues to move higher here. And they said that the fourth quarter and full-year sales actually also reflect sustained growth across that oncology business, but also vaccines, too.
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, vaccines certainly a driver here going forward, looking to diversify their pipeline. We know Merck is going to lose the patent on Keytruda here going forward in 2028. So the big focus here for investors over the last year, and of course looking ahead to the next couple of years, is going to be on some of those future investments, future acquisitions in order to further diversify their pipeline.
But when it comes to these results, it's a pretty good quarter here for Merck, JPMorgan calling it a solid update here for the company. The fact that they beat expectations on earnings and revenue, in terms of guidance here going forward to 2024, certainly a solid move to the upside here. And we're seeing that reflected in the share price this morning, with the stock up just about 2%.
