After Hours: Merck shares drop; Visa shares in the red after results

Merck falls; Visa down following quarterly results

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

Last Update: 7:36 PM ET Apr 28, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Merck & Co. shares fell more than 5% late Monday
after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the company’s request for
approval of a potentially lucrative drug to treat cholesterol, and investors sold
off shares of Visa Inc. following the release of the credit-card issuer’s
financial results.

Merck (MRK) shares dropped 5.4.% to $39.20 in the closing minutes of the late
session after the company said it received a “not approvable” letter from
government regulators for MK-0524A, a niacin-based agent aimed to treat primary
hypercholesterolemia or mixed dyslipidemia.

“We plan to meet with the FDA and to submit additional information to enable the
agency to further evaluate the benefit/risk profile of MK-0524A,” said Peter Kim,
president of Merck Research Laboratories, in a statement.

The company also affirmed its outlook of double-digit annual per-share earnings
growth until 2010.

Visa (V) shares slid 5.8% to $71.29. The company, in its first report since going
public in March, said fiscal second-quarter net income rose 28% to $314 million,
or 39 cents a share. In the year-ago quarter, it made $246 million, but the
company said there were no comparable results per share because it was still
privately held.

Adjusted for a normalized tax rate and excluding litigation, restructuring and
purchase amortization, Visa said it made $401 million, or 52 cents a share. Net
operating revenue in the fiscal second quarter 2008 was $1.5 billion.

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