MerckCompany’s first quarter revenue growth was driven by the sale of $3.2 Billion worth of oral antiviral treatments for Covid.

Merck beat Wall Street revenue and profit forecasts with earnings reporting of $2.14 per Share on $15.9 Billion in revenue. It raised its guidance for 2022 earnings to $7.24 to $7.36 per share on revenue of $56.9 to $58.1 billion. On revenue of $56.1-$57.6 billion, it previously predicted earnings per share between $7.12 and $7.27.

Premarket trading saw Merck stock rise by almost 2%

Based on Refinitiv’s average estimates of analysts, here’s what Merck did compared to Wall Street’s expectations.

• Earnings adjusted: $2.14 per share vs. $1.83 expected
• RevenueThe difference between $15.9 and $14.68 billion is 5.

Merck’s Covid drug treatment, molnupiravir (from Merck), has seen good sales since December when it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This treatment accounted for 20% of company’s revenue in the first quarter. Merck has now lowered its 2022 sales forecast for Molnupiravir from $5 billion to $5.5 billion. This is compared to its prior outlook of $5Billion to $6B. Merck and Ridgeback Therapeutics share the profit from the pill.

The overall increase in pharmaceutical sales to $14.1 million was 50% compared with the first quarter of 2021. Keytruda is an anti-cancer antibody that saw sales rise 23% over last year’s quarter. Gardasil, Merck’s HPV vaccine, saw 59% growth to $1.46billion compared with 2021.

This story is still in development. Keep checking back for more updates.