Pharmaceutical sales for the third quarter of 2020 at Roche Holding AG have fallen well short of consensus estimates, with its trio of big-selling cancer drugs – Avastin, MabThera/Rituxan and Herceptin – continuing to be battered by biosimilars but newer products such as Ocrevus and Hemlibra enjoyed healthy growth despite the impact of COVID-19.
The Swiss drug-maker’s pharma revenues fell 4% to CHF11.12bn ($12.17bn), hit by deep falls in the sales of Avastin (bevacizumab), Rituxan (rituximab) and Herceptin (trastuzumab) due to biosimilar competition in the US, Europe and Japan (see table)