Merck’s third quarter sales rose 5 percent to $18.085 billion, or 4 percent excluding currency, the company reported on October 29. GAAP earnings per share were $2.04, down from $2.32, and non-GAAP earnings per share were $2.49, down from $2.58, with both figures including a one time charge of $0.12 per share for the global licence agreement with SciBrunch Therapeutics for SPR2015, an oral KRAS G12D inhibitor. GAAP net income fell 12 percent to $5.065 billion. Growth in the quarter also benefited from the timing of purchases by about $550 million, a company disclosure that tempers the headline beat.
Keytruda remains the engine and the risk. Combined Keytruda and Keytruda Qlex sales rose 6 percent to $8.601 billion, driven by earlier stage indications including triple negative breast cancer, cervical, head and neck and bladder cancers. Qlex, the under the skin injection launched in 2025, contributed $830 million, its highest quarter since launch and above the $649 million analysts expected on StreetAccount estimates, while intravenous Keytruda alone was $7.77 billion. Winrevair sales rose 93 percent to $694 million, Gardasil rose 14 percent to $1.995 billion, Welireg rose 56 percent to $307 million, and animal health sales rose 4 percent to $1.676 billion. The patent cliff showed in the tail: Januvia and Janumet fell 39 percent to $380 million and Bridion fell 67 percent to $144 million, both on generic competition after loss of exclusivity.
Merck narrowed and raised its full year outlook. Sales are now expected at $66.8 billion to $67.3 billion, from $66.3 billion to $67.3 billion. The non-GAAP earnings per share range was raised to $2.77 to $2.82, from $2.66 to $2.76, a range that only makes sense with its stated contents: it includes one time charges of $9.0 billion, or $3.62 per share, for the acquisition of Cidara, $5.7 billion, or $2.31 per share, for Terns, and the $400 million SciBrunch charge. Non-GAAP operating expense guidance rose to $42.4 billion to $42.9 billion and the expected non-GAAP tax rate fell to 32 to 33 percent.
The pipeline items in the release connect to reporting elsewhere in this edition’s window. Merck presented pivotal sac-TMT data at ESMO, and the Food and Drug Administration has accepted the endometrial cancer application for Priority Review. Separately, Endpoints News reported on October 29 that research chief Dean Li argues Merck outflanked rivals with the sac-TMT programme it licensed from Kelun. That claim is the company’s own framing of a competitive race this site has tracked through the ESMO readouts, and the approval decisions, not the framing, will settle it.