Proquad is rarely a newsmaker from Merck’s earnings, but this time around, the U.S. has had a series of measles outbreaks. Sales of the vaccine were $539 million for the quarter, a 5% decline from the same period in 2024.
Sales of Merck’s measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox vaccine Proquad dropped in the first quarter after the U.S. dipped into its six-month pediatric vaccine supply amid a handful of measles outbreaks, the company announced Thursday.
Overall, Merck’s worldwide sales declined 2% to $15.5 billion compared to the same period a year earlier, according to a first quarter earnings report released Thursday morning. Also contributing to the decline is a steep drop in revenue from the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil/Gardasil 9 that continues to be impacted by supply challenges in China. Sales of the vaccine fell 41% to $1.3 billion for the quarter. While the decline was steep, Merck said it could have been worse had demand not increased in other regions, particularly in Japan, and the higher pricing in the U.S. also helped offset the losses.
Merck saw a 3% decline in its pharmaceuticals business, with sales falling to $13.64 billion for the first quarter. The company said the drop was driven by vaccines, virology and immunology, but as always, cancer blockbuster Keytruda helped offset the losses with 4% worldwide growth to $7.21 billion. Even so, BMO Capital Markets said Keytruda’s sales were a rare miss for the pharma giant, landing 3% below expectations.
Proquad, first approved almost 20 years ago, is rarely a newsmaker from Merck’s earnings, but this time around the U.S. has had a series of measles outbreaks that have brought the vaccine back into focus. Merck said that sales of the common childhood vaccine declined as doses were borrowed from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Pediatric Vaccine Stockpile. Sales of the four-way vaccine were $539 million for the quarter, a 5% decline from the same period a year earlier.
Offsetting the loss was higher sales of the M-M-R II vaccine, which provides protection against measles, mumps and rubella. Merck attributed this increase to private-sector buy-in due to measles outbreaks and higher pricing.
The earnings blip for Merck comes as a measles outbreak spreads across the U.S., primarily driven by unvaccinated people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 800 confirmed cases as of April 17, across dozens of states and three deaths. There have been 10 total outbreaks in 2025 so far, compared to 16 total for all of 2024. The CDC said that 96% of the cases were in people who were unvaccinated.
Meanwhile, new Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to stoke anti-vaccine sentiment, despite acknowledging in early April that a vaccine is the “most effective way” to prevent measles.
