Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) delivered a strong performance in 2012, with Group sales rising 4% to 45.5 billion Swiss francs due to growing demand for its cancer medicines and increased sales of diagnostic tests to clinical laboratories. This solid sales growth, along with productivity improvements, resulted in a double-digit increase in core operating profit and core earnings per share (EPS), as well as improved profitability.
Roche's three top-selling products MabThera/Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin all performed strongly in 2012 as demand grew in all regions. Avastin is back on the growth path following its successful launch in ovarian cancer in Europe at the end of 2011. It is also benefiting from significant uptake in Japan. Robust demand for clinical laboratory solutions (Professional, Tissue and Molecular Diagnostics businesses) helped the Diagnostics Division to again grow faster than the in vitro diagnostics market. The Pharmaceuticals Division posted a 5% increase in sales to 35.2 billion Swiss francs, while the Diagnostics Division reported a 4% rise in sales to 10.3 billion Swiss francs.
The United States and emerging markets remained the main regional growth drivers for the Group, offsetting lower sales in Western Europe, which were weaker due to ongoing price pressure and generic competition.
Roche CEO Severin Schwan, commenting on the Group's 2012 results: "2012 was a very good year for Roche. We met our financial targets, grew faster than the market, and our strong pipeline positions us well for further growth. A particular highlight in 2012 was the approval of breast cancer medicine Perjeta, which helps women with HER2-positive breast cancer live longer. We now look forward to getting T-DM1, our other novel breast cancer therapy, to patients as soon as possible."
About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche's personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2011, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 42.2 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.