Explore Business Standard
Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.
The blockbuster cancer treatment Keytruda pushed Merck past fourth-quarter expectations, and the drugmaker's COVID-19 treatment debuted with nearly $1 billion in sales. Sales for the Gardasil vaccine, which protects against cancer-causing human papilloma virus infections, jumped 50%, Merck said Thursday. Merck earned $3.75 billion in the final quarter of 2021 and sales jumping 24% to $13.52 billion. Adjusted earnings, which exclude items like interest expense, totalled $1.80 per share, far exceeding Wall Street's per-share projections of $1.53, according to a survey by the data firm FactSet. Merck sales also topped the quarterly revenue expectations of $13.16 billion from industry analysts. The drugmaker expects adjusted earnings of $7.12 to $7.27 per share on $56.1 billion to $57.6 billion in revenue. Wall Street has been projecting earnings of $7.30 per share on $56.71 billion in revenue. Shares of Merck & Co., based in Kenilworth, New Jersey, slipped 17 cents to $81.84 in ear
Homegrown drug maker Lupin is recalling 4,113 cartons of generic oral contraceptive tablets in the US, the world's largest market for medicines, due to manufacturing issues. As per the latest enforcement report issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), Lupin's US-based unit is recalling 4,113 cartons of Tydemy (drospirenone, ethinyl estradiol & levomefolate calcium tablets, 3 mg/0.03 mg/0.451 mg and levomefolate calcium tablets, 0.451 mg). The affected lot has been produced at the company's Pithampur-based manufacturing facility in Madhya Pradesh and distributed in the US by Baltimore-based Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The company is recalling the lot due to it being Subpotent Drug, the US health regulator noted in the report. Lupin initiated the nationwide recall on November 19 this year, it added. The USFDA has classified both the recalls as class III. As per the US health regulator, a class III recall is initiated in a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a .
Aurobindo Pharma and Unichem Laboratories are recalling different products in the US market, the world's largest market for medicines, due to manufacturing issues. As per the latest enforcement report issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), Aurobindo's US-based unit is recalling 7,296 containers of hypertension drug Carvedilol tablets. The affected lot contains 6.25 mg Carvedilol tablets, which have been produced in India and distributed in the US by Princeton-based Aurobindo Pharma USA Inc. The company is recalling the lot due to "failed impurities/degradation specifications", the US health regulator noted in the report. Aurobindo initiated the nationwide the recall on November 15 this year, it added. Another domestic drug maker Unichem Laboratories is recalling 1,284 bottles of Topiramate tablets, used to treat epilepsy (seizures) and to prevent migraines. It is also used in the treatment of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (a rare, but severe form of epilepsy that starts