Roche Sales Grow, Buoyed by New Drugs -- Update
October 17 2018 - 3:16AM
Dow Jones News
By Donato Paolo Mancini
Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche Holding AG (ROG.EB) said
Wednesday that its nine-month group sales rose on year, buoyed by
new drugs.
The Basel, Switzerland-based company said its nine-month group
sales rose to 42.08 billion Swiss francs ($42.55 billion) up from
CHF39.43 billion the year before. In the pharmaceuticals division,
sales rose to CHF32.70 billion, up from CHF30.63 billion the year
before. In a conference call with reporters, Roche Chief Executive
Severin Schwan said 90% of that growth came from new medicines.
Roche said sales were boosted by Ocrevus, which is used to treat
two forms of multiple sclerosis, and cancer medicines Perjeta,
Alecensa and Tecentriq. The company said the increase was partially
offset by lower sales of MabThera/Rituxan and Tarceva.
The possibility of sales erosion to biosimilars, drugs that are
near-copies of existing drugs made from living cells, continues to
loom, and the company expects the impact to become tangible in the
first-half of next year for its blockbuster Herceptin.
Analysts at Vontobel said group-level growth was a small beat,
with biosimilar erosion in Europe continuing for Mabthera, and
noted that erosion for Herceptin has begun at a rate comparable to
that seen for Mabthera at a similar point in the sales cycle.
Roche backed its outlook for the year after raising it twice in
2018. It expects sales to grow in mid-single digits, at constant
exchange rates. It also expects to further increase its dividend in
Swiss francs.
"In the first nine months of the year, both our pharmaceuticals
and diagnostics divisions achieved very strong sales growth. The
uptake of our new medicines continued to be strong in the third
quarter," said Mr. Schwan. "Based on the performance in the first
nine months of the year, we will achieve our full-year
targets."
Write to Donato Paolo Mancini at
donatopaolo.mancini@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 17, 2018 03:01 ET (07:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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