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Schering profit rises


    NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp said on Tuesday its second-quarter earnings rose after lower special charges, but global revenue declined as the weak dollar hurt sales in overseas markets.

    The company, which is expected to be acquired by Merck & Co Inc in coming months, said net income available to common shareholders was $633 million, or 38 cents per share. That compared with $424 million, or 26 cents per share, in the year-earlier period, when the company took charges for its acquisition of Organon BioSciences.

    Excluding items, SCHERING (SCH.XE)Plough earned 46 cents per share. Analysts, on average, expected 45 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

    Company sales totaled $4.65 billion, higher than the Reuters Estimates expectation of $4.61 billion.

    Sales of Schering-Plough's cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin fell 8 percent to $1.1 billion in a continuing downturn after data from two clinical trials questioned the effectiveness of the medicines. It sells the two drugs in a joint venture with Merck.

    Sales of Remicade, a widely used treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, rose 2 percent to $565 million.

    (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)