US pharmaceutical company Merck reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue due to higher sales of its vaccines and cancer drug Keytruda, which won an early US approval on Monday for use in previously untreated lung cancer patients.

Shares of Merck, which also raised its full-year profit and revenue forecasts, were up 1.23 per cent at $61.50 in premarket trading on Tuesday. The second-largest US drugmaker is betting on Keytruda to boost earnings as expectations for the drug have been building since its success in treating selected untreated patients.

The approval from the US Food and Drug Administration confirms Merck’s leading position in the hot area of medicines that fight tumors by harnessing the body’s immune system. Annual sales of the drug are now expected to reach $8.1 billion in 2021, according to consensus forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters. Third-quarter sales of Keytruda, which is already approved to treat advanced melanoma and some forms of lung cancer, rose to $356 million from $159 million, slightly below the consensus estimate of $376 million, according to Evercore ISI.

Merck said the company’s total sales increased 5 per cent to $10.54 billion, above analysts’ average estimate of $10.18 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Sales for its Gardasil vaccine rose 38 per cent to $860 million, well above Evercore’s consensus estimate of $635.6 million.

Merck’s stock had risen 15 per cent this year, compared with a 3.5 per cent fall in the S&P 500 Healthcare index.

Reuters