Novartis 2nd-qtr beats expectations, despite sales and earnings decline

Swiss pharma giant Novartis’ (NOVN: VX) shares were up 2.25% at 81.95 Swiss francs in morning trading, after the company posted second-quarter 2017 financial results that beat expectations, and reiterated its forecast that sales would start growing again in 2018.

Novartis said core net income fell 2% to $2.87 billion, but this beat the average analyst forecast of $2.668 billion in a Reuters poll. Sales also declined 2% to $12.242 billion, hurt by declining revenue from blood cancer drug Gleevec (imatinib) and US price pressure at the company's Sandoz generics business. Core earnings per share were $1.22 (-1%, +2% cc), including the benefit from the share buyback program.

Commenting on the results, Joseph Jimenez, chief executive of Novartis, said: "Novartis delivered very strong innovation in Q2 including the positive pivotal trial readouts for RTH258, ACZ885 and CTL019 JULIET, demonstrating the strength of our pipeline. We are on track for the full year guidance. The trajectory of the current growth drivers reinforces our confidence in our next growth phase, which we expect to start in 2018."