Novartis raises forecast again after strong Q1 results

Novartis raises its forecast again after a strong start to the year Keystone-SDA

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has continued the strong pace of growth of recent quarters in the first three months of 2025. Contrary to the expectations of many analysts, the company has raised its outlook again, for the ninth quarter in a row.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Between January and March, Novartis generated sales of $13.2 billion (CHF10.9 billion). This is an increase of 12% compared to the same period last year, the Group announced on Tuesday. At constant exchange rates (CER), the increase was 15%.

In operational terms, the Basel-based company earned just under $4.7 billion (+38%) in the first quarter. The bottom line was a consolidated profit of $3.6 billion after $2.7 billion in the same period of the previous year. According to the press release, the increase was primarily due to the higher operating result.

+ US tariffs pressure Swiss pharma powerhouse

For analysts, however, the core operating profit adjusted for various factors is more important. At $5.6 billion, this was better than the AWP consensus in the first quarter.

Novartis management is once again raising its own target for the full year. At constant exchange rates, the Group is now targeting sales growth in the high single-digit percentage range (previously: mid to high single-digit range). For core operating profit, it is now forecasting growth in the low double-digit percentage range (previously: high single-digit to low double-digit range).

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. A journalist then briefly reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

Did you find this explanation helpful? Please fill out the short survey below to help us understand your needs.

Don’t miss your chance to make a difference! Take our survey and share your thoughts.