New products spur Novartis growth
pharmafile | July 15, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Novartis, Tasigna
Novartis has posted strong results for the second quarter of the year.
The Swiss pharma company posted an 11% rise in net sales for the second quarter to $12.13 billion, with pharmaceutical sales hitting $7.7 billion, an increase of eight per cent.
Chief executive Joe Jimenez said results were: “Driven by our success in innovation across the portfolio, as recently launched products comprised 21% of group sale.
“We are making great progress on all three strategic priorities of innovation, growth and productivity.”
Blood pressure drug Diovan remains Novartis’ biggest seller at $1.52 billion, but saw a modest rise of just one percent. Its blood cancer drug Glivec, its second biggest selling product, rose by 8 % on constant currency rates. Meanwhile, the follow-up drug to Glivec, Tasigna is also performing welll.
The US approval of Tasigna for newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia patients has grown steadily post-launch by 73% to $89 million.
Cardiovascular drug Exforge was one of its biggest climbers, growing 37% to $227 million. Lucentis, for age-related macular degeneration, jumped 29% to $377 million.
The company’s worst performing drug was Lotrel, down 17% to $71 million due to generic pressures.
Oral MS treatment
Merck has stolen a march on Novartis’ Gilenia by having its oral MS therapy Cladribine being approved in Russia, the first such treatment to reach the market.
Both Novartis and Merck have been locked in a race to bring the first oral treatment for MS to market, replacing the old subcutaneous forms of interferon alpha and beta treatments.
Novartis is still hopeful for a swift US approval later this year, as the FDA put Gilenia under a nine month priority review in January and received a unanimous advisory committee recommendation by the US regulator in June.
Ben Adams
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