Roche’s old guard of big drugs holds up in face of new foes

MUNICH: Roche Holding AG’s old guard of blockbuster medicines held their own against a new wave of cheaper copycats during the third quarter.

Their performance helped the Swiss drugmaker’s sales beat estimates. Bestseller Herceptin’s showed little change as it contended with so-called biosimilars for the first time in two decades of use.

Newer medicines including Ocrevus for multiple sclerosis grew, but missed analysts’ estimates.

The Basel, Switzerland-based company reported overall sales of 14 billion Swiss francs (US$14.1bil) for the quarter, up 7% from a year ago, it said in a statement.

Herceptin’s performance suggests biosimilars from Merck & Co-Samsung and MylanBiocon may not be stealing away sales as fast as expected.

Roche’s shift away from cancer treatments should continue to get a boost from Hemlibra, a hemophilia medication.

Sales will probably kick into higher gear heading into 2019 thanks to a US regulatory approval this month that cleared it for use in the largest group of hemophilia patients.

While multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus’ sales more than doubled from the prior year, that missed estimates – the drug’s revenue almost tripled in the second quarter of this year and was on track to hit about US$2.4bil this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.