RHHBY Roche Holdings Ltd AG (QX)

By Denise Roland

Demand for coronavirus testing and a potential treatment buoyed Roche Holding AG in the first quarter, even as the pandemic hit healthcare provision in other disease areas.

The Swiss Healthcare giant said Wednesday that overall sales for its drugs rose 7% at constant exchange rates in the first quarter to 12.3 billion Swiss Francs ($12.68 billion). The company backed its full-year guidance for full-year revenue growth in the low-to-mid single digit range at constant exchange rates, as well as core earnings per share growth broadly in line with sales.

In mid-March, Roche launched a diagnostic test for the coronavirus, and said it has been ramping up reagent production, used in laboratory virus tests, by a factor of ten in the first quarter. Roche said these efforts have offset declines in other parts of its diagnostics business, due to hospitals conducting fewer routine tests.

The company also benefited from soaring sales of an arthritis drug that some small independent studies have suggested could help patients with severe cases of Covid-19. Sales of the drug, Actemra, surged 30% at constant exchange rates to CHF666 million in the first three months of the year.

Roche's business from the pandemic could grow further, with the company planning to launch an antibody test next month. Chief Executive Severin Schwan said he was confident the Roche test wouldn't suffer from the same reliability problems that have dogged many of the dozens of antibody tests launched so far.

Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 22, 2020 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)

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