FRANKFURT, Nov 14 Reuters Merck KGaA on Thursday reported a gain of 11.9 in adjusted quarterly earnings, helped by temporarily lower spending on drug development and a rebound in demand for its specialty materials.

The German pharma and technology company said in a statement that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation EBITDA, adjusted for special items, came in at 1.62 billion euros 1.71 billion in the third quarter, above an average analyst estimate of 1.55 billion in a consensus posted on the company39;s website.

The diversified group has suffered highprofile setbacks in latestage drug trials, prompting it to halt development of head and neck cancer drug xevinapant. A major trial testing multiple sclerosis drug evobrutinib failed in December last year.

Merck, which previously predicted 2024 sales between 20.7 billion and 22.1 billion euros, said it was now guiding for the lower half of that range.

It added that fullyear adjusted EBITDA would likely be around the midpoint of its target range of 5.8 billion to 6.4 billion euros, compared with 5.9 billion reported for 2023.

Its Life Science unit, which makes gear and supplies for biotech labs, continues to regain ground from a slump after the end of the COVID19 pandemic, while its business making chemicals for semiconductor production was also recovering, the company added.

Reporting by Ludwig Burger, editing by Rachel More

Source Reuters