FRANKFURT (AFP) - The German pharmaceutical and chemical group Merck posted Wednesday strong second quarter results despite negative foreign exchange effects, it said in a statement.

Net profit more than doubled to 207.4 million euros (327 million dollars), a leap of 142.6 percent from the same period a year earlier, in part the result of the group's sale of its generic drug activities.

Sales gained 6.1 percent to 1.9 billion euros, the statement said.

Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast an average net profit of 215 million euros.

Operating profit climbed by 15.5 percent to 320.5 million euros, below the analysts' average outlook of 327 million.

Merck reiterated its 2008 targets, including sales growth of between five to nine percent.

The group said the euro's rise against other major currencies had hurt its results.

But pharmaceutical sales nonetheless reached 1.2 billion euros, owing in part to Merck's cancer drug Erbitux, sales of which jumped by 24 percent to 145 million euros.

The scope of Merck's activities were marked by two major changes last year, the sale of its generic drug activities and the purchase of the Swiss group Serono.

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