Adverse currency moves hit Roche first-quarter sales
ZURICH (Reuters) - Adverse currency moves weighed on first-quarter sales at Roche Holding AG , which fell 1 percent, despite a healthy uptake of its new cancer medicines.
The strong performance of its cancer drugs and rheumatoid arthritis treatment RoActemra helped compensate for the loss of exclusivity on chemotherapy drug Xeloda and declining sales of hepatitis treatment Pegasys, and the Swiss group confirmed its forecast for rising sales and profits this year.
But a weaker U.S. dollar, Japanese yen and Latin American currencies took a toll, shaving 6 percentage points of quarterly sales, which slipped to 11.5 billion Swiss francs (7.82 billion pounds), slightly below the average analyst forecast of 11.89 billion in a Reuters poll.
Excluding the impact of currencies, sales were up 5 percent.
The Basel-based firm notched up strong sales at its smaller diagnostics division, which rose 2 percent, driven by demand for tests in clinical laboratories.
"Both the Pharma and Diagnostics Divisions posted solid growth in the first quarter. I am particularly pleased with the strong uptake of our recently launched medicines Perjeta and Kadcyla for HER2-positive breast cancer," said Chief Executive Severin Schwan.
Sales of Perjeta, a so-called "follow-on" medicine to Roche's older blockbuster Herceptin, more than tripled to 178 million francs, while Kadcyla chalked up 102 million francs in sales.
Roche has pushed ahead with plans to develop these follow on medicines which it hopes will replace or breathe new life into older treatments. It is banking on a strong ramp-up of these products to defend its market share once copycat versions of biotech drugs known as "biosimilars" arrive.
Last week, Hospira successfully overturned two patents on Roche's blockbuster breast cancer drug Herceptin in Britain, clearing the way for it to launch a biosimilar version in the country.
Roche has also taken steps to defend sales in its blood cancer business and won approval for Gazyva, a follow-on to its current top-seller MabThera, from U.S. health regulators last November. Gazyva notched up 8 million francs in sales in the first quarter.
Roche, which does not detail quarterly profits, is the first company to report among major drugmakers this quarter.
It confirmed its guidance for low-to-mid single-digits sales growth this year, while expecting core earnings per share (EPS) to grow ahead of sales. It also plans to further increase dividend.
(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
