MSD improves EPS despite increasing costs

Increases in various costs and expenses for the first quarter of 2006 did not prevent MSD from announcing an earnings per share (EPS) level higher than that from the first quarter period of 2005.

The $0.69 EPS for the first quarter is higher than the $0.62 from last year, despite the fact that marketing and administrative expenses, materials and production costs and research and development expenses all rose, by seven per cent, six per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

MSD has said that it was the performance of branded drugs such as Zocor and Singulair, in association with the performance of its partnerships that accounted for the positive results.

“The strong financial results, along with our late-stage pipeline events, including the approval of Rotateq, the accepted filing of Januvia, and the priority review for Gardasil, demonstrate MSD’s solid momentum as we move forward in 2006,” said Richard T Clark, chief executive officer and president.

“We clearly are making progress against the goals we outlined in December to return MSD to an industry-leading position.”

Total sales increased by just one per cent for the quarter, with the company saying that global sales included an unfavourable two per cent effect from foreign exchange.

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