Novartis reported second-quarter net sales of $14.4 billion on Tuesday, up 3% in dollar terms and 1% in constant currencies, as strong demand for cancer and multiple sclerosis treatments helped the Swiss drugmaker return to sales growth despite a steep drop in its top-selling…
art drug. Core operating income — the company’s preferred profit measure, which strips out special items — came in flat year-over-year at $5.94 billion
Analyst expectations had placed that figure at around $5.31 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Net income fell 19% to $3.26 billion, weighed down by higher income taxes and interest expense. The growth was driven by a cluster of fast-expanding medicines.
Breast cancer drug Kisqali posted sales of $1.7 billion, up 43% in constant currencies, while leukemia treatment Scemblix rose 89% to $562 million. Multiple sclerosis drug Kesimpta grew 32% to $1.42 billion, and prostate cancer treatment Pluvicto climbed 43% to $651 million. Offsetting those gains was a sharp deterioration in Entresto, the heart failure drug that had been Novartis’s top revenue generator.