Roche reports solid set of results for 2010
Cancer products drive pharmaceuticals division sales
Swiss drugmaker Roche has reported a ‘solid’ set of results for 2010, with group sales remaining flat at CHF47.5bn and net income rising 4% to CHF8.9bn.
Pharmaceuticals sales, which account for 78% of total Group sales, were down 2% at CHF37.06bn. Core operating profit in this division increased 4% to CHF14.8bn, driven by MabThera, Herceptin and Avastin, which are key products for cancer, Actemra/RoActemra for rheumatoid arthritis and Lucentis in ophthalmology.
The firm said these products compensated for most of the expected strong decline in Tamiflu sales, which fell to CHF873m (CHF2.3bn lower than in 2009), the reduction in CellCept sales due to US patent expiry in May 2009, and the impact of ‘US healthcare reforms, European austerity measures and price cuts in Japan’.
The company’s late-stage development pipeline has 12 new molecular entities, including six potential personalised healthcare medicines with planned companion diagnostic tests.
Four new molecular entities moved into late-stage clinical development: lebrikizumab (asthma), MetMAb (lung cancer), RG 7128 (hepatitis C) and ocrelizumab (multiple sclerosis).
Roche said it would stop the development of taspoglutide for type 2 diabetes and return the product to Ipsen.
Roche chief executive Severin Schwan said the results are solid ‘despite an increasingly challenging market environment’ and excluding Tamiflu the pharmaceuticals division grew above the market.
He added that the 12 innovative new molecular entities in the firm’s late-stage pharmaceutical pipeline ‘form a strong basis for the company’s future success’.
In 2011, Group and Pharmaceuticals sales (excluding Tamiflu) are expected to grow at low single-digit rates in local currencies, reflecting the impact of US healthcare reform and European austerity measures, the firm said.