Roche Group's sales declined marginally by 0.8 per cent during the first quarter ended March 2014 to Swiss Francs (CHF) 11,496 million from CHF 11,589 million in the similar quarter of last year due to lower sales in US, Asia-Pacific, EEMEA, Latin America Canada and other. Its pharmaceutical sales in Japan improved by 2 per cent to CHF 845 million from CHF 826 million and that in Europe increased by 5 per cent to CHF 2,425 million from CHF 2,314 million.
The sales of pharmaceutical division moved down to CHF 9,040 million from CHF 9,170 million due to decline in Xeloda sales. However, the sales of Diagnostics division increased by 2 per cent to CHF 2,456 million from CHF 2,419 million in the last period.
Commenting on the Group’s first quarter performance, Roche chief executive officer Severin Schwan said: “Both the Pharma and Diagnostics Divisions posted solid growth in the first quarter. I am particularly pleased with the strong uptake of our recently launched medicines Perjeta and Kadcyla for HER2-positive breast cancer. With the acquisition of IQuum, we will further strengthen our leading molecular diagnostics portfolio with tests for the point of care segment. Based on the first quarter results, I am confident we will meet our full year targets.”
The sales driven by demand for cancer medicines (in particular the HER2 breast cancer franchise, Avastin and MabThera/Rituxan), as well as Actemra/RoActemra for rheumatoid arthritis. Sales of Xeloda, a chemotherapy drug, were lower as the product is now off patent and faces generic competition in the United States and Europe. In the Diagnostics Division, strong sales growth was driven mainly by Professional Diagnostics with demand for immunoassays in clinical laboratories.
Compared with the first quarter of 2013, many currencies weakened significantly against the Swiss franc; notably the US dollar and the Japanese yen, as well as all Latin American currencies. This impacted the reported Swiss franc sales growth by 6 percentage points.
On 7 April 2014, Roche announced the acquisition of IQuum Inc., a privately held US company focused on developing point of care tests for the molecular diagnostics market. Roche will pay IQuum shareholders 275 million US dollars up front and up to 175 million US dollars in contingent product related milestones. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.
In 2014, Roche expects low-to mid-single digit growth in Group sales at constant exchange rates. Core EPS is targeted to grow ahead of sales. Roche expects to further increase its dividend.