Roche sales rise 12 per cent

Sales at the Basel-based pharmaceuticals group, Roche, rose 12 per cent last year, to SFr27.6 billion. That is above analysts' expectations of about nine per cent growth.

Sales at the Basel-based pharmaceuticals group, Roche, rose 12 per cent last year, to SFr27.6 billion. That is above analysts’ expectations of about nine per cent growth.

Roche said it expected to post good results for 1999, excluding special items, such as the floating of part of its US biotechnology unit Genentech, and the fines imposed for its role in a vitamin price-fixing case.

Sales of Roche’s anti-obesity drug Xenical generated nearly SFrone billion in 1999, even though it was only launched in the key United States market in May.

“Campaigns started recently in North America to educate patients and inform doctors about obesity are having a positive impact,” Roche said in a statement on its 1999 group turnover.

It also said it had applied on schedule for European Union approval of its Tamiflu influenza pill and that a decision from regulators was expected in the second half of this year.

Roche will release its 1999 profit figures on March 27.

By Tom O’Brien