Novartis International AG has posted satisfactory performance during the third quarter ended September 2010 and its net profit increased by 9.8 per cent to US$ 2,319 million from $2,112 million in the corresponding period of last year. Its net sales also moved up by 13.5 per cent to $12,578 million from $11,086 million. Its earning per share for the quarter worked out to $0.99 as against $0.93 in the last period. Its recently launched products contributed 20 per cent of net sales with 42 per cent growth over the previous period.
Joseph Jimenex, CEO, 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 leukaemia, have the potential to change patients' lives. Data on new medicines such as MenB, our meningococcal vaccine candidate, give me confidence that our pipeline will continue to deliver.
Pharmaceutical sales increased by 6 per cent to $7.6 billion from $7.2 billion and maintained solid volume growth of 7 per cent. The acquisition of an additional 52 per cent of Alcon was completed on August 25 and Alcon has been consolidated thereafter.
For the first nine months ended September 2010, Novartis' sales increased by 16 per cent to $36.4 billion with strong improvements across all business. Recently launched products provided $7.9 billion, contributing 22 per cent of total sales. Volumes grew by 13 percentage points. Pharmaceutical sales touched to 22.5 billion with growth of 7 per cent. Vaccines and diagnostics grew strongly to $2.6 billion mainly through H1N1 pandemic flu vaccine sales of $1.3 billion in the first half of the year. Sandoz reported sales of $6.2 billion, a growth of 15 per cent mainly on account of strong growth in the US, Canada, Italy and and in emerging markets. Europe remained the largest region with sales of $8 billion.