The drugmaker says first-quarter profit jumped 12 percent, to $1.7 billion, or 78 cents a share, from $1.5 billion, or 69 cents. Excluding a charge of 6 cents an ongoing restructuring program, income was 84 cents, matching a forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Sales rose almost 7 percent to $5.8 billion, from $5.4 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected revenues of $5.36 billion. New products helped a bit: the Januvia diabetes pill generated $87 million, the Rotateq vaccine rang up $85 million, and Gardasil contributed $365 million.

Says an upbeat Dick Clark: “We still have much to do to realize our longer-term goals, but we are executing on our plan with confidence.”

Updates will be provided.

Further reading…

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required);
Merck earnings statement.[tags]Gardasil, Merck[/tags]