Roche 1st-qrt sales hit by pandemic and biosimilars competition

Swiss pharma giant Roche (ROG: SIX) today released first-quarter 2021 financials, showing that group sales rose 3% (-1% in in francs) to 14.9 billion Swiss francs ($16.2 billion), propelling the firm’s shares up 2.3% to 332.20 francs in early afternoon trading.

The appreciation of the Swiss franc against many currencies had a negative impact on the results expressed in Swiss francs compared to constant exchange rates, said Roche, which does not release first-quarter earnings figures.

Sales in the Pharmaceuticals Division decreased 9% to 10.6 billion francs, mainly because of the continued biosimilars competition and the COVID-19 pandemic. As expected, the first quarter of 2021 was particularly challenging due to base effects, as the pandemic only started to have a significant business impact at Roche as of April 2020.