Tamiflu windfall helps Roche to bumper sales growth
pharmafile | October 15, 2009 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Roche, TamifluÂ
Roche has raised its sales growth prediction for 2009 on the back of a strong third quarter and record sales of its flu drug Tamiflu.
The Swiss drugmaker expects to post sales growth in the “high single digits” for 2009, “well ahead” of the pharmaceutical industry average, according to chief executive Severin Schwann.
Roche also said it has paid back around CHF 7 billion ($6.91 billion) in debt related to its $47 billion takeover of Genentech earlier this year and expects to make around CHF 1 billion in synergies from the integration in 2009.
Sales in the group’s pharmaceutical division came in at CHF 26.19 billion ($25.83 million), up 11%, putting in a second consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
Meanwhile diagnostics growth was a healthy 4% to CHF 2.46 billion, more than twice as fast as the overall market.
Tamiflu (oseltamivir) was far and away the star of the show with sales of CHF 994 million in the third quarter – a near tenfold increase on the same period of 2008 – thanks to demand resulting from the swine flu epidemic.
The flu drug is now expected to bring in around CHF 2.7 billion for 2009 as a whole, but Roche anticipates a steep fall-off to around CHF 700 million in 2010 as government stockpiling programmes abate.
Roche’s cancer portfolio, headed by Avastin (bevacizumab), was also a strong performer, with sales up 11% to a little under CHF 16 billion. Avastin benefitted from broader European approval in metastatic breast cancer and a green light for its use for kidney cancer in the US, growing 26% to CHF 4.7 billion.
Newer products did well too, according to Roche. RoActemra/Actemra (tocilizumab) for rheumatoid arthritis added around CHF 40 million to Roche’s coffers in the third quarter following its initial launches in Japan, European markets such as Germany and Switzerland as well as India and Brazil. The company was forced to re-apply for approval of the product in the US but now hopes to get the nod around the end of the year.
Mircera (methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta), Roche’s once-monthly renal anaemia treatment, also put in a good showing, with third quarter sales around the CHF 50 million mark despite a “highly-competitive, price-sensitive market”.
On the downside, sales of the immunosuppressant CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil) for use in transplantation fell by 14% and were down a third in the US, due to a patent expiry in May 2009.
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