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- The Roche pharmaceutical group was able to stabilize sales in the third quarter thanks to corona trials and continued good demand for new drugs.
- In the first nine months of 2020, however, the Basel group had fewer sales than a year earlier, according to a statement.
- Roche cites the crown pandemic as reasons, but also the strength of the Swiss franc.
- Sales fell 5 percent to almost 44 billion Swiss francs. Adjusting for currency effects, Roche achieved a slight increase of one percent.
The huge demand for tests to diagnose coronavirus infections has given pharmaceutical giant Roche a boost. The Swiss group’s diagnostics division increased sales in the first nine months of 2020, adjusted for currency effects, by nine percent to a record 9.7 billion Swiss francs.
Extensive Covid test portfolio
In the third quarter, the advantage was even 18 percent. The high growth rates are mainly due to the extensive Covid test portfolio.
Across the group, the much larger pharmaceutical division of the world’s leading maker of cancer drugs in Basel had slightly fewer sales. The crown crisis slowed down business here. Hospital admissions and doctor visits were temporarily reduced for fear of virus infection. “After the pandemic-related decline in the second quarter, sales stabilized in the third quarter due to continued strong demand for our new drugs and Covid-19 tests,” said CEO Severin Schwan.
Schwan expects a further recovery in the last quarter, so he sees Roche on track to meet its annual targets. Throughout the year, the manager continues to anticipate an increase in sales without currency exchange by a low to medium single digit percentage. The growth in profit adjusted by certificate of participation and stock should largely correspond to the increase in sales.
