Novartis International AG, Switzerland, has posted satisfactory performance during the year ended December 2010 and its net profit increased by 18 per cent to $9,969 million from $8,454 million in the previous year. Its net sales crossed $50 billion mark and touched to $50,624 million from $44,267 million, a growth of 14.4 per cent. The growth in sales is mainly on account of consolidation of Alcon, Inc and recently launched products. The Board has declared equity dividend of CHF 2.20 per share for 2010, up by 5 per cent.

Its pharmaceutical sales expanded by 7 per cent to $30.558 million driven by 8 percentage points of volume expansion. Recently launched products contributed 21 per cent of pharmaceuticals sales. Sandoz achieved double-digit sales growth to $8,518 million from $7,493 million on account of strong growth in US retail generics, biosimilars and emerging markets such as Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Its vaccines and diagnostics sales grew to $2,918 million from $2,424 million and consumer health business increased by 7 per cent to $6,204 million in the previous year.

Joseph Jimenez, CEO said, “Novartis achieved excellent results in 2010 as all divisions contributed to above-market growth. I am proud that Novartis continues to lead the industry in innovation, with 13 key product approvals and 16 major filings in pharmaceuticals in 2010, including our breakthrough multiple sclerosis therapy in the EU.”

The company received 13 major approvals and 16 submissions during 2010 in the US, EU and Japan. It currently have 147 projects in its pharmaceuticals development pipeline and its early pipeline in vaccines is progressing rapidly. The sales of its hypertension brand Diovan/Co-Diovan increased by one per cent to $6,053 million and that of Gleevec/Glivec moved up by 8 per cent to $4,265 million during 2010. Lucentis sales went up sharply by 24 per cent to $1,533 million. The top ten products achieved 6 per cent growth to $19,598 in 2010.