NEW JERSEY Merck & Co on Tuesday cut its full-year earnings forecast mainly due to one-time charges from its acquisition of eye-focused drug developer EyeBio.

Merck now expects 2024 earnings of US$7.94 to US$8.04 per share, down from its earlier forecast of US$8.53 to US$8.65, as it took a US$1.3 billion charge related to its acquisition of EyeBio.

Merck's shares fell nearly 2% in premarket trading after the company reported its earnings. The stock price is up more than 17% this year.

The company, however, slightly raised its full-year sales projections, following other big pharmaceutical companies like Roche, Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb, which lifted their forecasts when they reported earnings earlier this month.

New Jersey-based Merck also beat second-quarter results on strong growth of its blockbuster cancer immunotherapy Keytruda, the world's best-selling prescription medicine.

Merck posted a profit of US$5.5 billion, or US$2.14 per share, for the quarter, compared with a loss of US$6 billion, or US$2.35 a share, a year earlier, when it took a large acquisition-related charge.

Excluding one-time items, Merck said it earned US$2.28 per share. Analysts, on average, expected US$2.15 a share, according to LSEG data.

Sales in the quarter were US$16.1 billion, up 7% from last year and above analysts' expectations of US$15.8 billion.

Keytruda has been Merck's most important revenue driver for years with annual sales expected to rise well above US$30 billion before the drug loses patent protection towards the end of the decade.

Sales of Keytruda, which is approved to treat many types of cancer, hit US$7.3 billion for the quarter, up 16% from a year ago. Analysts had expected sales of around US$7.1 billion.

Merck said it now expects full-year sales of US$63.4 to US$64.4 billion, up from its prior view of US$63.1 to US$64.3 billion.

  - Reuters