Merck profits decline but new drugs maintain sales growth

Revenues were at $4.3 billion, a slight rise of 0.5% versus the prior-year period. Organically, sales grew by 5.2%. Merkel cell carcinoma drug Bavencio brought in sales of $20 million, up from $5 million, and MS treatment Mavenclad saw revenues of $23 million. Meanwhile, Rebif, Erbitux and Gonal-f all saw slight drops in revenue.

"In the second quarter, our company generated solid organic sales growth, which was mainly attributable to our Life Science and Healthcare business sectors," said CEO Stefan Oschmann. "This also reflects the positive contributions of our new medicines Bavencio and Mavenclad."

The company said it expects exchange rate effects to have a moderately negative impact on net sales for the full year, and anticipates declines of 3-5% - although this is slightly lower than the previously forecast 4-6%.

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