Roche Group has posted sales growth of five per cent during the first half ended June 2013 and its sales reached at 23.3 billion Swiss francs with continued demand for its oncology medicines, as well as for its clinical laboratory diagnostic products. The Pharmaceuticals division posted a six per cent increase in sales to 18.2 billion Swiss francs, while the Diagnostics division recorded a three per cent rise in sales to 5.1 billion Swiss francs.

The Group’s core operating profit rose 10 per cent to 9.5 billion Swiss francs in the first half of 2013. Net income on an IFRS basis rose 41 per cent to 6 billion Swiss francs as the large restructuring charges relating to the closure of the US site in Nutley that were incurred in 2012 were not repeated this year. Roche’s core EPS, which excludes non-core items such as restructuring charges and amortisation and impairment of intangible assets, rose 12 per cent to 7.58 Swiss francs in the first half of the year.

Roche’s CEO Severin Schwan said, “Roche delivered strong operating results in the first half of 2013, driven by our existing portfolio, recently launched cancer medicines Perjeta and Kadcyla, as well as continued growth in the clinical laboratory business.” Schwan added, “We will continue to focus on innovation with 68 new molecular entities in our Pharma pipeline and 55 key Diagnostics platforms and tests in development.”

Demand for Roche’s three major cancer treatments MabThera/Rituxan, Avastin and Herceptin remained strong in the first half of 2013. Sales of Avastin were particularly good, rising 12 per cent, due to its increased use in ovarian cancer in Europe and colorectal cancer in both Europe and the United States. The HER2 breast cancer franchise (+11 per cent) is showing good growth following the recent launches of Perjeta and Kadcyla.

Roche’s Professional Diagnostics business area recorded a six per cent  increase in sales as a result of the division’s broad offering of tests, software and services. This was partly compensated by a decline in Diabetes Care of five per cent, reflecting a difficult market environment and continued pricing pressure.

Roche further strengthened the outlook for its haematology franchise with encouraging data on obinutuzumab (GA101) and the Bcl-2 inhibitor RG7601, which Roche is developing with AbbVie. Study outcomes were presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and at the 18th Annual Meeting of the European Haematology Association (EHA) in June.

As previously announced, Roche decided to stop all trials involving aleglitazar after a regular safety review of the AleCardio phase III trial investigating aleglitazar in type 2 diabetes detected safety signals and lack of efficacy.

Based on the strong operational performance in the first half of the year, Roche confirms its full-year outlook. Group sales in 2013 are expected to increase in line with last year’s sales growth, at constant exchange rates. Core EPS is targeted to grow ahead of sales. In 2013, Roche expects to further increase its dividend.