The Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant Roche has seen a sales growth for the first three quarters of 2016, praising good performance of Tecentriq, it’s anti PD-L1 cancer immunotherapy that was approved for non-small cell lung cancer by the US FDA in May this year.
To remind, on Wednesday the FDA has also approved Tecentriq for people with a specific type of metastatic lung cancer.
Roche CEO, Severin Schwan, has said that the company’s newly launched products had good impact on sales growth.
Schwan said: “We had continued good sales growth in both Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics driven by our newly launched products, and our product pipeline is developing very well. Our cancer immunotherapy medicine Tecentriq has been performing strongly since May, when it was first approved in the US for people with advanced bladder cancer, and it has just received US FDA approval for previously treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.”
He also expressed expectation of meeting full-year targets for 2016, as based on the company’s performance for the first nine months.
Group sales increased 4% to CHF 37.5 billion. Sales in the Pharmaceuticals Division were up 4% to CHF 29.1 billion, driven by demand for breast cancer medicines Perjeta and Herceptin as well as for Actemra/RoActemra for rheumatoid arthritis.
Sales in the US rose 3%, led by three immunology treatments and treatments for HER2-positive breast cancer. The US growth was partly offset by a decline in sales of Tamiflu, Lucentis, Avastin and Tarceva, the company said.
In Europe, sales increased 5% with good sales in Germany and France. In the International region has seen the growth of the 4%, influenced by the company’s cancer medicines portfolio.
“In Japan, sales were stable; mandated price cuts for reimbursed products were compensated by strong growth from Alecensa, HER2 cancer medicines and Actemra/RoActemra,” the company said.
Sales in the Diagnostics Division grew 7% to CHF 8.4 billion, with a noticeable growth in Asia-Pacific of 17%.
Outlook
Roche expects sales to grow low- to mid-single digit at constant exchange rates in 2016. Core earnings per share are targeted to grow ahead of sales at constant exchange rates. Roche expects to further increase its dividend in Swiss francs.