Novartis has received setback during the second quarter ended June 2013 and its net profit declined by 4.8 per cent to US$ 2,548 million from $2,675 million in the corresponding period of last year. Its net sales improved marginally by 1.3 per cent to $14,488 million from $14,030 million due to expiration of patent. With lower profit, its earnings per share moved down to $1.03 from $1.09 in the last period.

Pharmaceuticals net sales declined by 1.6 per cent to $8,121 million from $8,255 million in the same quarter of last year due to generic competition mainly for diovan and zometa. Pricing had a negligible impact. The major products like gilenya, afinitor, tasigna, galvus, lucentis, xolair, the Qfamily and jakavi contributed 37 per cent of pharmaceutical division sales. US sales declined by five per cent and that in Europe improved by four per cent. New product launches pushed sales in Japan Similarly, sales in Latin America, Canada and emerging markets improved during the quarter under review. Oncology product sales reached at $2.8 billion, a growth of five per cent despite the entry of a generic form of Glivec in certain markets and loss of exclusivity for Zometa.

The sales of Alcon division improved by three per cent to $2,736 million during the quarter from $2,648 million and that of Sandoz division improved by three per cent to 2,216 million from $2,147 million.

For the first half its net earnings remained almost stagnant at $4,970 crore and its sales improved only by 1.7 per cent to $28,504 million from $28,038 million in the similar half of last year. Generic competition put pressure on sales by approximately US$ 1.3 billion, mainly due to Diovan and Zometa. US sales continued to benefit from the delayed entry of generic competition for Diovan monotherapy.

The sales of Pharmaceuticals division for the first half ended June 2013 declined by almost one percent to $15,998 million from $16,094 million. The pharmaceuticals sales in US declined by five per cent to $5.1 billion, but same in Europe improved by six per cent to $5.5 billion. Alcon division reported sales growth of two per cent to $5,302 million as against $5,189 million. Its Sandoz division reported sales of $4,475 million as against $4,271 million, a growth of five per cent.