(New York) The American laboratory Merck suffered a loss of 5.97 billion dollars in the second quarter following the absorption of the Californian biotech company Prometheus Biosciences, which cost it nearly 11 billion dollars.

The group, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, had warned when announcing the closing on June 16 that the charge induced by this transaction would affect its quarterly result and that of its financial year.

Diluted per share, this represents a loss of $2.06 when analysts were expecting a loss of $2.18.

Prometheus is notably in the process of developing a treatment against autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, PRA023.

Merck’s revenue rose 3% to $15.03 billion, beating consensus.

Sales of its anti-COVID-19 treatment molnupiravir – marketed as Lagevrio – continued to slump in the quarter (-83% to $203 million) as the pandemic receded.

Excluding Lagevrio, Merck’s revenue increased by 11%.

By contrast, sales of its cancer treatment Keytruda rose 19% to $6.3 billion and sales of the cervical cancer prevention vaccine Gardasil were up 47% to $2.5 billion. billion.

Merck again raised its guidance for the full year with revenue expected between 58.6 and 59.6 billion (vs. 57.7 and 58.9 billion previously) and net earnings per share between $2.95 and $3.05, affected by Prometheus charge of $4.02.

In pre-opening New York Stock Exchange trading, the stock rose 2.47% to $109.28.