TRENTON, N.J. – Drugmaker Merck & Co. said Friday the federal health care overhaul will reduce its revenue by about $170 million this year, and by roughly double that amount next year.
Merck also expects to take a non-cash charge of about $150 million for the first quarter, due to elimination of the tax benefit for providing prescription drug coverage to company retirees.
Merck said rebates to the Medicaid program, required in the recently passed federal health care legislation, will reduce its revenue by about $35 million in the first quarter and $170 million for all of 2010. In 2011, the company said it expects “unfavorable sales impact” of about $300 million to $350 million.
Despite those costs, Merck said that it is still aiming to produce compound annual growth in the high single digits.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.