Cancer-Drug Giant Roche Posts Growth as Diversification Efforts Pay Off
January 30 2020 - 03:21AM
Dow Jones News
By Denise Roland
New drugs for multiple sclerosis and hemophilia drove growth at
Roche Holding AG last year, a sign the company's efforts to move
beyond cancer treatments are paying off.
The Swiss health-care giant on Thursday said sales rose 8% to
61.5 billion Swiss francs ($63.2 billion) in 2019. Core operating
profit, a closely watched measure that strips out some one-time
items, rose 10% to 22.5 billion francs. Net income climbed 30% to
14.1 billion francs, partly because of an impairment charge in the
prior-year.
For years, Roche leaned heavily on three cancer drugs --
Herceptin, Rituxan and Avastin -- to drive growth. But with those
drugs now facing generic competition -- and expected to lose
billions of dollars in sales in the coming years -- the company is
looking elsewhere for growth.
Those efforts have proven successful so far. Last year, two of
the most significant growth drivers were Ocrevus, for multiple
sclerosis, and Hemlibra, for hemophilia. Roche hasn't backed out of
cancer entirely: Two oncology drugs, Tecentriq and Perjeta, also
performed strongly.
"Based on the progress we made in rejuvenating our portfolio,
Roche is very well positioned to grow going forward," said Chief
Executive Severin Schwan.
Roche is also branching into gene therapy, a new area of
medicine that holds the potential to cure serious inherited
diseases by providing a working copy of a defective gene. The Swiss
company signed two deals in the past year, including the $4.8
billion acquisition Spark Therapeutics, that handed it a marketed
gene therapy and several under development.
Within its pharmaceuticals division, sales rose 10% to 48.5
billion Swiss francs. The smaller diagnostics division notched
growth of 1% to 13 billion francs.
The company said it expected sales to grow in the
low-to-mid-single digits in 2020, despite increased competition
from low-cost competitors to its historic best sellers.
Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 30, 2020 03:06 ET (08:06 GMT)
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