Roche’s group sales and diagnostic division sales both experienced double-digit growth in Q1, leading the company to confirm its outlook for the rest of 2022 in its latest earnings report released Monday morning.
Pharmaceuticals division sales increased 6% due to the strong performance of several new medicines targeting severe diseases, namely Ronapreve, Ocrevus, Hemlibra, Evrysdi and Phesgo. The impact of biosimilars also decreased as expected.
Much like Abbott, which reported strong demand for COVID-19 testing in its earnings released last week, Roche said its portfolio of COVID tests remains a “major sales driver.” However, the company noted that it expects demand for COVID drugs and tests to wane, with projected decreases between 2 billion to 5 billion Swiss francs ($2.1 billion to $5.2 billion).
For its full-year outlook, Roche projects sales to be stable or grow in the low-single digits, and earnings per share to grow low-to-mid-single digits. The company also expects to increase its dividend.
“As expected, we started the year with strong demand for our diagnostics base business, our broad portfolio of COVID-19 tests and our new medicines,” said CEO Severin Schwan in a statement. “I am particularly pleased about the progress we are making in developing our product pipeline, including positive new data in neurology as well as in severe eye diseases. Based on our current assessment of the development of the COVID-19 pandemic, we confirm the outlook for the full year.”
The company announced in the earnings release that its breast cancer drug, giredestrant, did not meet its primary endpoint during Phase 2 trials. Still, Roche stated that the drug will be investigated in upcoming clinical trials for patients with first line metastatic breast cancer and early breast cancer.
