Roche increased sales in the first nine months of 2024 by two percent to almost CHF 45 billion. Adjusted for currency effects, sales rose six percent from January to September. Strong demand for advanced medicines and diagnostics more than offset the expected decline in Covid-19 sales and the impact of biosimilar/generic erosion. These include solutions for immunodiagnostics, pathology and molecular diagnostics. The strengthening of the Swiss franc against most currencies negatively impacted sales in Swiss franc terms.
Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker emphasises: “Our strong growth momentum continued in the third quarter, reflecting the high demand for our innovative medicines and diagnostic solutions and their positive impact on patients’ lives around the world. We made significant progress in our pharmaceuticals portfolio in the last quarter with five important regulatory approvals for our medicines, three positive phase III read-outs, and two acquisitions to strengthen our oncology and ophthalmology pipelines. We confirm our outlook for 2024.”
Roche increases nine-month pharmaceutical sales by three percent
The Pharmaceuticals Division increased sales by three percent to CHF 34.3 billion. Excluding Covid-19, the underlying business grew nine percent. This was mainly due to higher sales of medicines for severe eye diseases, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, haemophilia and blood cancers. These five medicines generated sales of CHF 13.2 billion, an increase of CHF 2.7 billion in local currencies over the previous year.
In the United States sales increased by four percent to approximately CHF 18.2 billion. In Europe sales increased by six percent to CHF 6.6 billion. Sales in Japan declined by 29 percent to CHF 2.1 billion Sales in the International region increased by ten percent to CHF 7.4 billion.
Diagnostics maintains previous year's sales
Sales in the Diagnostics Division remained at the previous year's level of CHF 10.7 billion. The core business, excluding Covid-19 products, grew by eight percent. The strongest growth drivers were immunodiagnostics products, including cardiac, oncology and thyroid tests. Further growth was driven by pathology and molecular diagnostics solutions.
Sales increased in most regions. Sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) rose slightly to nearly CHF 3.6 billion. Sales in North America grew four percent to CHF 3.2 billion. In the Asia-Pacific region, sales declined by four percent to CHF 3.1 billion, while in Latin America they increased by three percent to CHF 770 million.
Roche confirms outlook for 2024
For the current year, Roche expects a mid-single digit growth of Group sales in local currencies.
