Merck reports ‘solid’ second quarter
Helped by efficiency measures and sales growth for multiple sclerosis treatment Rebif
Merck KGaA has reported a ‘solid business performance’ in the second quarter of 2013, driven by continued growth of multiple sclerosis treatment Rebif and cost-cutting in the firm’s Fit for 2018 efficiency programme.
The German pharmaceutical firm saw total revenues of the Merck Group fall slightly by –0.4% to €2.84bn in the second quarter. Sales at Merck Serono decreased by –1.0% to €1.53m, while Merck Millipore, the firm’s life science tools division, achieved a solid increase in sales of 2.6% to €666m.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 10.7% to €826m.
Merck’s largest single product, Rebif, for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, grew organically by 3.5% to €499m in the second quarter of 2013, mainly owing to price increases. At €215m, sales of cancer drug Erbitux were –4.8% lower in the second quarter.
Karl-Ludwig Kley, Merck’s Chairman of the Executive Board, said the firm had achieved a solid business performance in an ‘even more difficult market environment’.
He added that the Fit for 2018 programme ‘is producing excellent results’ and confirmed Merck’s full-year guidance of €3.1-3.2bn EBITDA ‘despite currency headwinds’.