Now for the whole truth: Sales fell by more than 1%, just as they have every quarter for longer than I can remember. The profit boost came from cost cutting and, as others have mentioned, there are only a limited number of costs left to cut. As much as they're trying to spin this, I'd say it looks like the continuation of Merck's downward spiral. The one nice thing was that Januvia's sales increased for the first time in several quarters. That is a small victory in the big picture, as Januvia's competition is about to grow and its days are numbered.
We have considerable costs to cut - all of you will be shortly gone. I am in UG and know what is in store for the "salesforce" - down to less than 1500 by second qtr 2015.Better start looking don't hesitate
Exactly why the stock will not be good in the long term. If you cut costs so much to generate profits, what happens in the long term? Where does your revenue come from if you have no one to generate it?
Begs the question, where does your revenue come from if you have no more blockbusters to generate it?
Begs the question: What is most important- an efficient and effective salesforce or a pipeline full of new innovative products?
If the plan is to sustain the business (I'm not sure it is). New products! Existing products have a shelf-life as patents expire and require continual replenishment. If the plan is to boost the stock price for the short term (which seems to be the case) then pushing the sales of existing products is critical so that the current executive management can get paid and exit before their world comes crashing down.
So much for the two day stock bump based on the earnings call. The euphoria didn't last long as the reality of the numbers sunk in. Merck's revenue is retracting and the earning's smoke screen was just an attempt to hide that fact. Everybody on the inside recognizes this company can't sustain itself with the current trajectory and The Street will wise up to this fact, albeit slowly. Seriously, invoking the Venezuelan currency devaluation as a critical factor in the EPS just show how precarious Merck's revenue situation is. The thought that some analyst focused on this particular issue simply illuminates the observation that there was nothing of substance to talk about other than the fact that Merck's revenues didn't shrink as much as everybody expected. Pathetic.
And R&D makes up 10% ? This is industry wide problem And people are surprised that the pharma industry is collapsing under its own weight
Shhhhhhh. It's a big secret. We don't want to make this shathole any more toxic than it already is. We're already down under to less than 2,000. FYI, that was 8,000 just a few years ago. It will be far less in a couple of years, after the lipid meds are gone, the PD-1 falters and suvorexant fails miserably. Checkmate.