Roche reported third-quarter group sales of 16.13 billion Swiss francs (about $19.6 billion) on October 22, up 7 percent at constant exchange rates and 8 percent in francs, slightly ahead of the 15.75 billion franc average analyst estimate in the company-compiled consensus. Sales for the first nine months reached 46.493 billion francs, up 6 percent at constant rates but only 1 percent in francs after a year of currency drag that eased in the quarter. The Pharmaceuticals Division contributed 36.212 billion francs over nine months, up 7 percent at constant rates, and Diagnostics 10.281 billion, up 4 percent despite pricing reforms in China.
Within the quarter, multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus grew 9 percent at constant currencies and haemophilia treatment Hemlibra 13 percent, Reuters reported. The miss was Xolair: sales of 848 million francs against expectations of 925 million, a shortfall BioPharma Dive singled out as the group readies for generic competition against top products. Roche confirmed its 2026 outlook, group sales growth in the mid single digit range and core earnings per share growth in the high single digit range at constant rates, with a further dividend increase expected.
Analysts were not persuaded by the beat. Jefferies called the third quarter cosmetically ahead, helped by a new resource planning system that boosted reported revenue, and argued the underlying numbers looked like a miss, a judgment BioPharma Dive reported. Chief executive Thomas Schinecker pointed instead to the pipeline: five potential new medicines advanced into final-stage development this year, an ambition to bring up to 20 new medicines to market by 2030, FDA Priority Review for fenebrutinib in relapsing and primary progressive multiple sclerosis, and giredestrant under Priority Review in early and advanced breast cancer, with a launch prepared for later this year pending approval. On September 30 Roche reported fenebrutinib cut relapses by 51 and 58 percent in two Phase 3 studies, and on October 1 that giredestrant cut the risk of progression or death by 44 and 62 percent in two populations. Endpoints News reported the same week that Roche is cutting pipeline programs while talking up its Phase 3 success rate. The quarter, in short, pays for the present; the two reviews decide the multiple.