Shares of drug maker Merck & Co. declined Thursday after the company lowered its full-year profit guidance and said tariffs would add on $200 million in costs this year. Sales of its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda failed to beat expectations and sales of the vaccine Gardasil declined in the quarter.
The stock dropped 1.24% to $77.76 as of 10:27 a.m. after rising in premarket trading before the report.
The drugmaker lowered its adjusted earnings per share outlook for 2025 to between $8.82 and $8.97 from a range of between $8.88 and $9.03 per share previously. Merck said the adjusted outlook accounts for the impact of current tariffs, which it said will cost $200 million.
Merck adjusted earnings per share were $2.22 and beat expectations. For the first quarter, Merck said net income increased 6.7% from the same period a year ago to $5.08 billion from $4.76 million. The company reported first-quarter sales of $15.5 billion, down 2%, from $15.8 billion.Â
Sales of Keytruda, Merck’s biggest-selling drug, were $7.21 billion, below expectations of $7.4 billion, though they were up 4% from $6.9 billion for the same period last year. Keytruda accounts for about 40% of Merck’s total sales. Sales of the HPV vaccine Gardasil slid 41% year-on-year to $1.33 billion, hurt by weak demand in China.
Merck continues to expect full-year 2025 sales to be between $64.1 billion and $65.6 billion.
