Group sales up 12% in local currencies to 33.9 billion Swiss francs. As anticipated, Tamiflu sales decline significantly in third quarter following completion of outstanding pandemic stockpiling orders. Full-year outlook reaffirmed: Group and Pharmaceuticals Division anticipate double-digit sales increases, and both divisions expect above-market growth; target is for Core Earnings per Share to grow faster than Group sales. Pharmaceuticals Division
- Nine-month pharmaceutical sales up 14% in local currencies and 13% in Swiss francs, more than twice the global market growth rate
- Third-quarter sales growth, excluding pandemic Tamiflu, reaches 12%, continuing double digit-growth trend of recent years
- All key cancer medicines post double-digit growth
- Positive market response following EU launch of Avastin in advanced lung cancer
- Mircera launched in EU for anemia â early uptake encouraging
- Four pivotal phase III registration trials with Actemra in rheumatoid arthritis meet primary objectives, regulatory filings on track for end of 2007.
- Phase III studies with Avastin in important additional indications initiated (adjuvant non-small cell lung cancer, gastric cancer, aggressive non-Hodgkinâs lymphoma)
- Phase III studies starting with ocrelizumab in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and with pertuzumab in metastatic breast cancer
- Genentech completes acquisition of Tanox, Inc.
Diagnostics Division
- Sales grow 5% in local currencies and 6% in Swiss francs
- All regions contribute to higher sales, with strong growth in Asia-Pacific (18%)
- Solid growth driven by Professional Diagnostics (7%) and Applied Science (10%)
- Molecular Diagnostics' sales down as expected (-3%) due to a decline in industrial sales
- Contract signed with Japanese Red Cross for blood-screening products
- NimbleGen transaction completed
Commenting on the Group's sales performance in the first nine months of 2007, Roche Chairman and CEO Franz B. Humer said "With its strong 9-month sales growth of 12%, the Roche Group continues to outperform the market. Revenue growth in the second half of last year, as we all know, was also driven by a peak in stockpiling orders for Tamiflu for use in the event of a pandemic. With those orders now filled, I am all the more pleased to report that our Pharmaceuticals Division continued its double-digit growth*, with 12% in the third quarter, fuelled by a broad and young portfolio of innovative medicines for cancer, hepatitis and osteoporosis. Particularly important for our future growth is the progress being made in our broad programme of clinical trials: several important projects are now entering or are ready to enter phase III."
* Without pandemic sales of Tamiflu to governments and corporations
About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the worldâs leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As the worldâs biggest biotech company and an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving peopleâs health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, a market leader in virology and active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases, inflammation, metabolic disorders and diseases of the central nervous system. In 2006 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 33.3 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 8.7 billion Swiss francs. Roche has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai, and invests approximately 7 billion Swiss francs a year in R&D. Worldwide, the Group employs about 75,000 people. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.roche.com.