Novartis posts strong Q3 results
pharmafile | October 21, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | 2010 financials, Novartis, Novartis quarterly results, Q3, pharma sales
Novartis has posted double digit growth for the third quarter following a strong showing by a number of recently launched products.
Net sales across the company’s businesses rose by 13% in US dollars to $12.6 billion, with growth strongest in both vaccines and diagnostics, and its generics business Sandoz.
Vaccines and diagnostics saw net sales rise 21% to $600 million while Sandoz was up 23% to $2.2bn on the back of growth from new products, in particular its enoxaparin, a generic version of Sanofi-Aventis’ blockbuster anti-blood clot treatment Lovenox.
Pharmaceuticals growth, up 5% to $7.6 billion, was achieved primarily by new products, which contributed $1.7 billion or 22% of overall sales, but it was partially offset by cost-containment measures in Europe and the bi-annual price cut in Japan, Novartis said.
Sales for the company’s biggest seller, the hypertension treatment Diovan, were up by just 1% to $1.5 billion compared to last year.
Oncology, its most important therapy by revenue, grew overall by 7% to $2.5 billion, but within this growth was slower for its gastrointestinal cancer drug Glivec (up 4%) and neuroendocrine tumour treatment Sandostatin (up 6%).
Zometa, for patients with bone metastases from other cancers, saw the biggest loss and fell 3% to $363 million. Novartis said that this loss was due primarily to negative pricing in the EU and in Japan.
The recent acquisition of eye care specialist Alcon has made Novartis one of the world’s largest ophthalmology specialist and its biggest selling ophthalmic drug Lucentis, indicated for wet age-related macular degeneration, grew 19% to $398 million.
Joseph Jimenez, chief executive of Novartis, said: “I am pleased with our excellent performance in the third quarter. Our innovation momentum and strong execution once more drove strong sales and core operating income growth.
“Approvals such as Gilenya, a breakthrough first-line oral treatment for multiple sclerosis, and Tasigna, a new first-line treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia, have the potential to change patients’ lives.”
Jimenez was also positive about the future, saying that data on new medicines such as MenB, Novartis’ meningococcal vaccine candidate, gave him “confidence that our pipeline will continue to deliver”.
Ben Adams
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