KENILWORTH-- Pharmaceutical giant Merck reported a 21 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits fueled partly by the rising sales of drugs for cancer and hepatitis C, News 4 New York reported Friday.

Along with sales of Ketyruda and the hepatitis treatment Zepatier, company officials also attributed increased profits to an aggressive round of cost-cutting.

Ketyruda, which was already approved for the treatment of a number of cancers and may soon receive FDA approval as a treatment other tumor types, posted sales of $483 million in the quarter and $1.4 billion in all of 2016. One analyst predicted sales to reach $7 billion by 2020.

Zepatier, the hepatitis treatment, may reach $1 billion in sales this year, following 2016 fourth-quarter sales of $229 million.  

The company had a net income of $5.7 billion in 2016 on revenue of $39.8 billion.

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.  

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