July 23, 2008 - Frankfurt, Germany--Pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA said Wednesday its second quarter profit rose 143 percent on strong results from all divisions of the company.

Merck said in the April through June period, net profit rose to 207.4 million euros (US$325 million) from 85.5 million euros in the year ago quarter on revenues that were up 6.1 percent at nearly 2 billion euros (US$3.14 billion) from 1.8 billion euros in the year ago quarter.

"The Merck Group produced solid growth in the second quarter with all four divisions contributing to the increase in revenues, despite strong headwinds from negative currency effects," said Karl-Ludwig Kley, the company's CEO. "Therefore, Merck continues to expect that we will meet the guidance for 2008 that we announced earlier this year."

The Darmstadt-based company said that it expects total 2008 revenues to increase in a range between 5 percent and 9 percent.

On Wednesday morning, Merck was trading down 1.3 percent at 79.85 euros (US$125.3).