Q3 2022: Every Business Line Is Hitting On All Cylinders, At Merck -- Except Perhaps Animal Health.

To be sure, Animal Health is largely a "nice to have" in Merck's total results (and could be spun off, at any time -- if need be), and it did provide some insulation -- during the sharpest teeth of the COVID-19 induced non-emergency procedure shut-downs at most US and EU hospitals. But the relative slowing in Animal Health is really no worry, since Keytruda^® alone is set to be a $20 billion a year franchise this year.

And the HPV vaccine franchise branded as Gardasil^® posted significantly better Q3 2022 sales than most models predicted. That is likely due to the fact that the EU government purchasers have now topped the tank off, on COVID-19 vaccine supplies, and are adding back to draw downs, on other vaccines, like the one used to prevent most strains of HPV. Demographic data out of Europe would suggest that younger and younger people are also opting to get that jab, as well (expanding the pool).

Here's some more local color, from BioPharmaDive, this morning:

. . .Sales [for juggernaut pembrolizumab] continue to grow, too, reaching $5.4 billion in the three months between July and September, according to third quarter earnings figures released by Merck on Thursday. The company also raised its revenue guidance for the full year to between $58.5 billion and $59 billion, as third quarter sales surpassed Wall Street expectations. [Gardasil sales beat expectations, as well -- driven by EU governmental payors' purchasing contracts, as COVID-19 vaccine stocks are largely fully replenished.]

Merck’s business is executing well, wrote Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat in a Thursday note to clients, and will likely mean Wall Street raises its estimates [shortly, for] Merck’s [next year] revenues. . . .

Now you know -- and though I am not long in significant amounts in this company, perhaps I should once again. . . be. Now onward, grinning into a non-Mississippi / Oxford weekend, due to a few last minute changes of circumstance (will do All Souls Eve here -- with those baby girls!).

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