Merck's (NYSE:MRK) quarterly results were about as good as could be expected, I guess. Revenue was up a whopping 67%, thanks to two months of sales from the addition of Schering-Plough plus moving a couple of drugs from its joint venture into the sales line. Adjusted earnings were down 9% year over year, but investors can't expect synergies from the combination to have kicked in that quickly. Essentially, the company gets a one-quarter pass.

Digging a little deeper on an individual basis, a couple of Merck's drugs are doing quite well. Diabetes drugs Januvia and Janumet combined for a 43% increase in the face of new competition from Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) and AstraZeneca's (NYSE:AZN) similar drug, Onglyza.

Sales of cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin were only up 6%, but that's about as big a win as Januvia and Janumet's double-digit increase. Sales for the first two drugs have been falling since their efficacy was called into question -- they were still down 7.5% on the year -- so investors should be happy about the turnaround.

On the bottom of the profit-loss statement, Merck's adjusted net income was actually up year over year, but because it used shares to purchase Schering-Plough, the earnings were divided among a bigger pie and dropped year over year on a per-share basis.

Merck seems to have decided not to blow its free pass and is holding off until the end of the first quarter to give guidance for the year. In the company's defense, there are a couple of pending items that could affect earnings this year. There's still the potential for (re)integrating its animal health business with sanofi-aventis (NYSE:SNY), and Merck has a pending arbitration with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) over the anti-inflammatory drugs that Merck now markets abroad. The arbitration hearing isn't until September, so that may not affect sales much this year.

Not following in Pfizer's (NYSE:PFE) footsteps this quarter may be a good move, but Merck will need to show some progress on the integration over the next couple of quarters, or it won't matter how great a forecast it gives.