『Merck Q2 2026 Earnings Analysis』のカバーアート

Merck Q2 2026 Earnings Analysis

Merck Q2 2026 Earnings Analysis

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Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown for the news that's moving your portfolio.

ALEX: Hey everyone, welcome back to Beta Finch! I'm Alex, here with Jordan as always, and today we're digging into Merck's second quarter 2026 numbers. Before we get into it — quick disclaimer. This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

JORDAN: Good disclaimer to lead with, because there's a lot to unpack here — this was a noisy quarter on paper but honestly a pretty exciting one underneath the hood.

ALEX: Right, let's start with the headline numbers. Merck posted revenue of $16.6 billion, up 5%, or 4% if you strip out currency effects. Oncology and animal health carried a lot of that weight, plus growing contributions from newer launches.

JORDAN: But here's where it gets interesting — on the bottom line, Merck actually reported a loss of $0.13 per share. That sounds alarming until you realize it's almost entirely a one-time accounting quirk.

ALEX: Exactly. They completed the acquisition of Terns Pharmaceuticals this quarter, picking up a promising CML — chronic myeloid leukemia — drug candidate. That came with a $5.7 billion charge, and because it wasn't tax-deductible, their tax rate for the quarter ballooned to over 160%.

JORDAN: Which tanked EPS by $2.31 a share. Take that out, and the underlying business is actually performing quite well. It's a classic case of "read past the GAAP headline number."

ALEX: They also raised and narrowed full-year guidance — now expecting revenue between $66.3 and $67.3 billion, 2-4% growth, and full-year EPS of $2.66 to $2.76.

JORDAN: Let's talk product performance, because this is really a story of "old reliable" versus "new and exciting." KEYTRUDA, the flagship cancer immunotherapy, grew 4% to $8.4 billion — still the workhorse, but management flagged that U.S. growth is moderating as it approaches peak penetration in a lot of indications.

ALEX: Meanwhile the newer stuff is popping. WINREVAIR, their pulmonary hypertension drug, was up 75% to $588 million. WELIREG jumped 67%. CAPVAXIVE, their pneumococcal vaccine, up 40%.

JORDAN: Those growth rates matter a lot for the bigger narrative here, which is what happens when KEYTRUDA eventually loses patent exclusivity around the end of the decade. CEO Rob Davis addressed this directly in the Q&A — he called it "more of a hill than a cliff," with a shallow dip and a fast return to growth, backed by more than $70 billion in commercial opportunity from over 20 new products.

ALEX: And a big one this quarter was LIPFENDRA — the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor approved by the FDA, for lowering LDL cholesterol. It got fast-tracked through a national priority voucher process.

JORDAN: This is a big deal because current injectable PCSK9 drugs only reach about 5% of the eligible market — mostly because doctors and patients don't love needles for a chronic condition. An oral pill could meaningfully expand that market. Davis was clear they're not trying to steal share from injectables, they're trying to grow the whole pie — 30 million Americans are on lipid therapy but not hitting their LDL targets.

ALEX: There's also real pipeline momentum beyond LIPFENDRA. Sac-TMT, their Trop-2 antibody-drug conjugate for cancer, put up positive Phase III results in endometrial cancer — ahead of schedule. Same with tulisokibart, their ulcerative colitis drug, which hit positive Phase III results faster than expected too.

JORDAN: Dr. Dean Li, their research chief, made a point of saying their confidence is actually higher now than it was back in January, because so many of these pipeline bets are reading out early and positive. That's not something yo

This episode includes AI-generated content.
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