MRK
A quarter with a plot twist
Merck came into Thursday looking like the usual biotech blue chip: solid sales, steady growth, and a big cancer franchise doing the heavy lifting. Then the Cidara Therapeutics acquisition charge showed up like an uninvited wedding guest and turned the quarter into an adjusted loss.
The company reported first-quarter sales of $16.29 billion, up 5% and ahead of Wall Street’s $15.82 billion estimate. Adjusted loss per share came in at $1.28, which was better than the expected $1.51 loss — but still a lot uglier than the $2.22 profit it posted a year ago.
The good news: the core business is still pulling weight
Merck’s pharmaceutical segment grew 5% to $14.35 billion, helped by oncology, cardiometabolic, and respiratory drugs. Keytruda, the company’s crown jewel, brought in $8.03 billion globally, up 12% year over year. That’s the kind of number that keeps investors from sprinting for the exits.
Animal health also did its part, with revenue up 13% to $1.79 billion. In other words: while the vaccine business stumbled, other parts of the machine were still humming.
The ugly bit: Gardasil and the Cidara charge
Not everything was rosy. Gardasil sales fell 19% to $1.07 billion, dragged down by weaker demand in China and Japan, plus softer U.S. sales. And that Cidara deal charge? It was worth $3.62 per share, which is the accounting equivalent of stepping on a rake.
That’s why the headline looks worse than the underlying business. Investors usually forgive that sort of noise if it’s tied to a strategic deal and the core numbers are holding up — which, for now, they are.
Guidance got a tiny glow-up
Merck nudged its 2026 adjusted earnings guidance up to $5.04-$5.16 per share from $5.00-$5.15. It also raised sales guidance to $65.80 billion-$67 billion from $65.5 billion-$67 billion.
So what should you care about? The company is still leaning hard on Keytruda while trying to keep the next wave of products from turning into expensive science fair projects. If the pipeline keeps producing and the charge from Cidara stays a one-time headache, investors may treat this like a temporary bruise instead of a broken leg.
Big picture: Merck’s quarter was messy on the surface, but the core story is still “blue-chip pharma with a monster cancer drug and a growing pipeline.”