Cancer and immunology drugs drive strong Roche sales performance
pharmafile | July 23, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Roche, Severin Schwan, financials
Sales at Roche rose 6% in the first half of 2015, buoyed by “significant growth of sales and immunology medicines”, according to the company’s half year financial results.
The 6% overall group sales hike (at constant currency exchange rates) was nearly matched by a 5% rise in sales in Roche’s pharmaceuticals division, to CHF 18.5 billion (£12.3 billion). Pharma sales saw ‘strong growth’ in some of the Swiss firm’s biggest products, including HER2-positive breast cancer drugs Herceptin (trastuzumab), Perjeta, (pertuzumab) and Kadcyla (trastuzumab emtansine), which saw a combined sales increase of 21% compared to the first half of 2014.
Avastin (bevacizumab) and Mabthera (rituximab) also performed well, with 9% and 6% year on year increases respectively. MabThera is Roche’s global top-seller, registering CHF 3.5 billion (£2.3 billion) in sales in the first half of 2015. Immunology drugs also performed well, notably Actemra, which is mainly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and rose 25% year on year, and chronic hives treatment Xolair (omalizumab) which rose 28%.
One of Roche’s recent new launches, Esbriet (pirfenidone) for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis – which the company acquired with InterMune in 2014 – made a significant contribution to growth with 229 million CHF (£153 million) of sales.
The group’s core operating profit increased 7% in the first half, excluding a one-off boost in income from the sale of the rights to the drug filgrastim, which boosts white blood cells to help cancer patients fight off infection, in 2014.
Despite the overall negative currency impact of three percentage points on its sales, Roche maintains it “continues to expect sales to grow [by] low- to mid-single digit at constant exchange rates in 2015.”
Commenting on the Group’s results, Roche chief executive Severin Schwan pointed to positive Phase III results for relapsing multiple sclerosis treatment ocrelizumab as a key reason behind the group’s financial outlook.
“We had continued strong sales growth in both pharmaceuticals and diagnostics in the first half. I am very encouraged by the strong uptake of our new medicine Esbriet, for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, following our acquisition of InterMune last year. We have made significant progress in cancer immunotherapy and now have over forty programmes in clinical development. I am also pleased with the very positive results of the phase III studies for ocrelizumab in multiple sclerosis. Based on the strong first half, I am confident we will reach our full-year targets for 2015.”
Lilian Anekwe
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