Roche posts strong nine-month sales lifted by cancer drugs

Swiss drug major Roche (ROG: SIX) reported that sales for the first nine months of 2013 have increased 6% (at constant exchange rates) to 34.9 billion Swiss francs ($38.36 billion), with third-quarter revenues rising a strong 8% to 11.57 billion francs and just beating consensus forecasts of 11,54 billion francs.

Shares of Roche, which does not provide profit figures at the quarterly stage, initially rose 0.8% to 247.60 francs in early morning trading but quickly flattened.

Pharmaceutical sales grew 7% to 27.2 billion francs, boosted by strong performances for Roche’s HER2 breast cancer franchise, Avastin (bevacizumab), sales of which were up 13% to 4.71 billion francs, and Actemra/RoActemra (tocilizumab), for rheumatoid arthritis, up33% to 763 billion francs.