Roche has posted a reasonable set of figures for the first nine months of the year which show that revenues rose 12% to 33.95 billion Swiss francs, or just shy of $29 billion, with its oncology agents performing well yet again.
Its pharmaceuticals sales, excluding the contribution made by subsidiaries Genentech and Chugai, were up 13% to 16.79 billion francs, driven by combined sales of the division’s oncology products which increased 21%. Globally, MabThera/Rituxan (rituximab) for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma grew 17% to 4.08 billion francs, while sales of Herceptin (trastuzumab) grew 26% to 3.59 billion francs. Avastin (bevacizumab) recorded an increase of 41% to 2.97 billion francs, while Tarceva (erlotinib) sales grew by 34% to 774 million francs.
However there was disappointment when it came to sales of the influenza Tamiflu (oseltamivir) which fell back 2% globally to 1.57 billion francs for the nine-month period but slumped 60% on third-quarter comparisions. Analysts were disappointed but Roche said the decline in Tamiflu sales was expected.
Chief executive Franz Humer noted that revenue growth in the second half of last year, “as we all know”, was also driven by a peak in stockpiling orders for Tamiflu for use in the event of a pandemic. Now, government and corporation stockpiling plans have largely been completed and no significant new orders have recently been received.
Source: PharmaTimes
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