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Strong demand for Roche’s cancer medicines helped the drugs firm increase its third-quarter sales by 6%.
The Swiss-based firm revealed that sales reached £4.6bn for the period, up from £4.3bn for the third quarter last year.
Roche also reported a 12% increase in sales from January to September to £14.1bn, up from £12.6bn for the first nine months of last year.
The firm said the results had been helped by sales of the company’s cancer medicines and a positive market response to EU approval for its cancer drug Avastin® (bevacizumab) in August.
The drug has been approved by EU authorities to treat advanced non-small-cell lung cancer – the most common form of the disease – which kills more than 3,000 people a day worldwide.
Roche said sales of Avastin increased 41% during the first nine months of this year compared with the same period in 2006.
And sales of breast cancer treatment Herceptin® (trastuzumab) soared 26% between January and September, the company added.
Roche also revealed that it has now filled all of its government and corporate orders for Tamiflu® (oseltamivir), which many countries are stockpiling as part of plans to deal with any future influenza pandemic.
As a result, sales of the drug fell by more than £166m in the third quarter compared with the same period last year.
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