Merck (MRK) shares a🍌dvanced in intraday trading Thursday after the pharmaceutical firm reported better-than-expected quarterly results, and raised and narrowed its guidance on strong sales of its bl෴ockbuster cancer-fighting treatments.

The company posted first-quarter adjusted 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:earnings per share (EPS) of $2.07, with revenue up 8.9% to $15.78 billion. Both easily beat forecasts.

Sales of its popular cancer drug, Keytruda, gained 19.9% to $6.95 billion. Merck said that was driven by increased demand for use♏ in earlier-stage indications and metastatic indicatio༺ns. It noted that the numbers would have been higher except for the negative impact of the devaluation of the Argentine peso.

Revenue from Gardasil, its vaccin♋e to prevent cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), advanced 14.0% to $2.25 billion on rising sales in both China and by the U.S. public sector, along with higher prices.

澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robert Davis explained that Merck had "strong growth across key therapeutic areas, executed strategic business development, and in the U.S., we are now launching Winrevair,” w🐷hich he called a significant new product to treat heart ♚disease. 

The company sees full-year adjusted EPS of $8.53 to $8.65, versus its prior outlook of $8.44 to $8.59.  It anticipates sales in the r🦹ange of $63.1 billion to $64.3 billion, compared with its earlier estimate of $62.7 billion to $64.2 billion.

Shares of Merck were up 1.8% to $129.27 as of 11:03 a.m. ET Thursday and have climbed more than 18% in 2024.