Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Roche Sales +12% But Below Forecasts

[Roche consolidates 100% of DNA’s sales for reporting purposes. CC at 8am ET.]

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKL1631173720071016

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Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:22am EDT

ZURICH, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Nine-month sales at Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG rose 12 percent to 33.95 billion Swiss francs ($28.82 billion) due to strong sales of cancer medicines, but missed forecasts.

Basel-based Roche confirmed its full-year outlook, saying on Tuesday it expected double-digit increases in group and drugs sales and core earnings per share to grow faster than group sales.

Shares in several of Europe's big pharmaceutical firms, including GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) and Sanofi-Aventis (SNY), have been hard hit this year by setbacks to major products, but Roche has bucked the trend thanks to its strong pipeline and limited patent exposure.

Sales of its key drug Avastin rose 41 percent in the first nine months to 2.97 billion francs.

But Roche said its sales of antiviral Tamiflu fell 60 percent in the third quarter following completion of outstanding orders for pandemic influenza stockpiles.

Roche had been expected to post nine-month sales of 34.22 billion francs, according to a Reuters poll of 19 analysts.

Basel-based Roche trades at about 16.8 times forecast 2008 earnings, at a premium to both the DJ Stoxx European healthcare index (.SXDP) and local rival Novartis (NVS) because of its promising growth prospects.
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