By Adria Calatayud

Roche Holding on Thursday backed its guidance for 2023 after lower sales of products related to Covid-19 in the first half weighed on its top and bottom lines.

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant said sales for the first half of the year dropped to 29.78 billion Swiss francs ($33.01 billion) from CHF32.295 billion in the same period last year, hit by weakness in its diagnostics division that saw booming demand during the pandemic. Sales at the diagnostics division plunged 29%, and revenue at the pharma divisions was up 1%.

Foreign-exchange rates also hurt sales, and Roche said its revenue decline was smaller, at 2%, when measured at constant currency.

Net profit for the half year was CHF7.14 billion, down from CHF8.53 billion a year before.

Roche said core earnings per share fell to CHF10.10 from CHF11.76, while core operating profit declined 14% to CHF10.91 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected sales to come in at CHF30.15 billion and core EPS to be CHF10.34.

Looking ahead, the company continues to expect a sales decline of low single percentage digits at constant currency, with a fall in core EPS along those lines. Excluding Covid-19 products, Roche expects solid sales growth in both divisions.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2023 01:37 ET (05:37 GMT)

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