Germany’s Merck KGaA expects earnings and sales growth this year after reporting a rise in annual earnings on temporarily reduced research and development expenses in its healthcare segment and strict cost discipline.

The life-sciences and electronics company said its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization before one-time items–the company’s preferred profitability metric–rose 3.3% to 6.07 billion euros, equivalent to $6.55 billion, as sales rose 0.8% to 21.16 billion euros.