Merck (NYSE:MRK) sold $952 million of its COVID-19 treatment pill molnupiravir in the fourth quarter, saying Thursday it’s on track to sell another $5 billion to $6 billion more this year.
Most of its sales so far have been concentrated in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan, the company said in releasing earnings results that beat Wall Street revenue and profit forecasts. Merck delivered 1.4 million courses to the U.S. after the Food and Drug Administration after the agency authorized the pill in December.
CEO Rob Davis said Merck is on track to fulfill its commitment in the coming days of delivering 3.1 million courses to the U.S. The company will ship four million courses to 25 countries worldwide soon, Davis said. Merck shares profits from molnupirvar equally with its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
"We’ve shown that molnupiravir works against omicron, which is important against that variant," Davis told reporters Thursday morning. "And obviously we’ll have to see how this plays out and what is the initial uptake but right now we feel we’re off to a good start," he said.
Merck swung to a $3.82 billion profit in the fourth quarter from a loss of $2.62 billion in the same quarter in 2020.
In clinical trials, molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalization or death in COVID patients by 30%, but slashed the risk of dying by 90%. Davis said the U.K. government is conducting a real-world study looking at the drug’s performance, and Merck is tracking molnupiravir’s impact as it rolls out worldwide.
MRK shares lost 41 cents to $81.60
