Merck sales fall in Q1 despite new product lifts

Merck’s sales were down in the first quarter of 2015 thanks to its consumer care divestment and increasing competition for key drugs – but new products are on the rise.

Total worldwide revenues dropped 8% from Q1 2014 to $9.4 billion, with a slight decrease of 2% in the pharmaceuticals division to $8.2 billion.

Chief executive Kevin Frazier remains optimistic, however: “Our strong performance this quarter demonstrates that our scientific and business strategies, together with our focussed investments, are paying off.”

Adding: “We remain focussed on bringing forward the best scientific and medical innovations. By capitalising on the exciting scientific and clinical opportunities that lie ahead, Merck is poised to play a major role in transforming healthcare for patients, as well as payers and shareholders.”

Remicade (infliximab), which is co-marketed with Johnson and Johnson, saw one of the biggest drops in sales as its revenues fell 17% to $501 billion due to biosimilar competition from Sun Pharma, Napp and Hospira.

The company’s hepatitis C (HCV) drugs Victrelis (boceprevir) and Pegintron (peginterferon alfa-2b) took a hit from the continued dominance of next-generation HCV treatments like Gilead’s blockbuster Sovaldi (sofosbuvir), with Pegintron’s sales falling by 50 per cent.

However Merck has a new contender for the market – combination treatment grazoprevir/elbasvir, which it plans to submit to the FDA in the first half of 2015.

There was better news for the oncology division, which grew thanks to $83 million in revenues from the continued launch of melanoma immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab). The drug has seen a string of successes recently, including becoming the first treatment to be approved through the UK’s Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS) and beating BMS’ Yervoy (ipilimumab) on survival in a clinical trial. The firm is also seeking FDA approval to use the drug in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

In December 2014 Merck acquired antibiotics specialist Cubist, which added $208 million of product sales, including $182 million from antibiotic Cubicin (daptomycin). This helped offset the 9% negative impact from the divestment of the company’s consumer care business, which was bought by Bayer for $14 billion in May 2014.

George Underwood