Roche Group announced better performance for the third quarter ended September 2005 and its net sales increased by 17 per cent despite expiry of US patent for Rocephin. The pharmaceutical sales went up by 22 per cent with strong demand for cancer medicines. Sales of Avastin already passed billion franc mark. The company launched Tarceva in Europe and its another product Bonnviva will be launched shortly. Tamiflu sales show further significant growth.
Its Diagnostics division sales increased by 2 per cent on account of strong gains by molecular diagnostics and diabetes care business. The Group launched innovative new diabetes management products successfully in all major markets. Further, its world's largest manufacturing facility for PCR-based products opened in Branchburg (USA).
Roche posted sales of 25.4 billion Swiss francs in the first nine months of 2005, an increase of 17 per cent over the same period last year. The Group thus maintained the high growth rates reported for the first half-year. Nine-month sales in the Pharmaceuticals Division increased 22 per cent more than three times as fast as the global market. The Diagnostics Division maintained its leading market position with sales growth of 4 per cent.
The GlycArt acquisition, completed in July, has strengthened Roche's expertise in therapeutic antibody research and added new, cutting-edge technologies and products to Roche's R&D organisation and pipeline.
Commenting on the Group's performance in the first nine months of 2005, Roche Chairman and CEO Franz B. Humer said, "Roche posted significant double-digit gains in the third quarter, maintaining the strong sales growth of the first half-year. Our Pharmaceuticals Division gained additional market share, with all major products contributing to this strong performance, particularly our new cancer medicines. Roche Diagnostics has now rolled out its new Accu-Chek products in all major markets, enhancing its competitive diabetes management portfolio. This helped accelerate divisional sales growth in the third quarter."