German pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck KGaA recorded an 18% increase in net profit in the first quarter to 884 million euros compared to 748 million euros in the same period a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected the figure to be €1.05 billion.

Merck’s revenue rose 12% year-on-year to €5.2 billion. Revenue beat the forecast of €5.09 billion.

The company’s closely watched Adjusted EBITDA – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization excluding one-time factors – rose 7.8% to €1.63 billion.

The company expects its revenue in 2022 to be in the range of €21.6 billion to €22.8 billion and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of €6.6 billion to €7.1 billion.

Merck shares are down 5.2% in Thursday trading. The company’s capitalization has fallen 29% since the beginning of the year, to 73.7 billion euros.