RHHBY Roche Holdings Ltd AG (QX)

By Carlo Martuscelli

Roche Holding AG (ROG.EB) raised its guidance on Wednesday after reporting that sales rose 9.5% in the period from January to September.

Sales in the nine months totaled 46.07 billion Swiss francs ($46.16 billion), up from CHF42.08 billion a year earlier. U.S. sales were particularly strong, rising 17% to CHF20.04 billion.

The Swiss drugmaker said it now expects high-single-digit sales growth at constant exchange rates in 2019, with core earnings per share increasing in line with sales.

Previously, the company had guided for mid-to-high-single-digit growth at constant exchange rates.

Roche said a strong performance from multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus, as well as hemophilia medicine Hemlibra and cancer medicines Tecentriq, Perjeta and Avastin helped to offset declining sales of Herceptin and MabThera/Rituxan, which were hit by competition from closely-resembling drugs.

Write to Carlo Martuscelli at carlo.martuscelli@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 16, 2019 01:33 ET (05:33 GMT)

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