Roche Q1 sales increase by 16%

Sales rose to CHF11.4 billion ($9.42 billion), between January and March. As a result Roche anticipates continued strong growth for 2007. Overall the pharmaceuticals division grew by 20% to CHF9.14 billion.

Roche’s oncology portfolio, which accounts for nearly half of all of the company’s pharma sales grew 22%. Additionally, further pandemic stockpiling by governments of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu continued to contribute to growth. Roche said orders for pandemic stocking of Tamiflu have been received from more than 80 countries and are continuing to be filled on schedule.

The growth was also attributed to worldwide sales of Herceptin, the breast cancer treatment, which grew 36%. Other drugs that achieved a sales increase were Avastin, Tarceva and Xeloda, with total drug sales rising 18%.

In March this year, EU authorities recommended the approval of the combination of Herceptin with hormonal therapy to treat advanced breast cancer that is both hormone receptor-positive and HER2-positive.