By Cecilia Butini

Roche Holding AG on Wednesday posted a decline in sales for the first quarter as its diagnostics division suffered from significantly lower demand for Covid-19 tests, and backed its outlook for the year.

The Swiss pharma major reported sales of 15.32 billion euros ($16.82 billion) for the first quarter, down from CHF16.45 billion in the same quarter a year prior. Sales in the pharmaceutical division grew 9% to CHF11.70 billion, but the diagnostics division declined 28% to CF3.62 billion, the company said. Sales of Covid-19 tests dropped to CHF0.3 billion in the first quarter, from CHF1.9 billion in the same period a year ago, when the Omicron variant of the coronavirus drove demand.

The company backed its outlook for the year, saying that it expects a decrease in group sales in the low-single-digit range at constant exchange rates, due to a CHF5 billion decline in the sales of Covid-19 products. Excluding the Covid-19 sales decline, Roche said it anticipates solid sales growth.

Core earnings per share are expected to develop broadly in line with the sales decline, and the company expects to further increase its dividend, it said.

Write to Cecilia Butini at cecilia.butini@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2023 01:38 ET (05:38 GMT)

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