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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
Merck & Co said Friday that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalisations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus and that it would soon ask health officials in the US and around the world to authorize its use. If cleared, Merck's drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic. All COVID-19 therapies now authorised in the US require an IV or injection. Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalisation and death as patients who received a dummy pill. The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease. Among patients taking molnupiravir, 7.3 per cent were either hospitalised or died at the end of 30 .