Roche Holding Ltd. (ADR) (OTCMKTS:RHHBY) had a quiet day yesterday as it finished the last trading session with a modest loss of 0.42%. The volume of the day at 982,000 was not much lower than the daily average of 1 million, indicating the absence of the heavy investors or traders. The stock continued its extreme short term decline but the lack of momentum to the downside was encouraging for the bulls. The last rise has been nicely contained in a perfect channel, as shown on the chart attached and the lower boundary can push the price higher in the next couple of sessions.
Roche Holding Ltd. (ADR)(OTCMKTS:RHHBY), the world’s biggest manufacturer of cancer drugs, posted a 6% increase in 3Q revenue and revised its full-year estimates, due to increased demand for its two new breast tumor drugs.
The details
Roche reported that sales jumped to 11.9 billion Swiss francs on a constant currency basis compared to analysts’ estimates of 11.8 billion-francs. The company doesn’t disclose profit figures for the quarter ended September 30, 2015. Roche, whose cancer medications face opposition from U.K. authorities due to hefty prices, is not overtly exposed to the recent regulatory and political debate related to drug costs in the U.S. it is because the company believes that society will be prepared to pay a premium for drugs that creates a difference for patients.
Severin Schwan, the CEO of Roche, said that if industry think of a medication such as Perjeta, which has changed life of patients with breast cancer, if market think of the advancement in areas such as cancer immuno-therapies, where they can start talking about treatments, he believe this kind of innovation and development will continue to be rewarded.
The performance
Earlier in September, the U.K.’s “National Health Service” stated that the Cancer Drug Fund established by PM David Cameron back in 2011 would not pay for cure with Avastin in future. It should be noted that Avastin is second-best-selling medication of Roche. The verdict also affects the medicine Kadcyla. Roche witnessed a decent quarter, in which a mix of new products like Kadcyla and Perjeta and older drugs like Avastin supported sales.
Roche reported that sales this fiscal will grow by a mid-single digit percentage. In July 2015, it stated that sales would surge by a low- to mid-single digit percentage this year. The revenue from Perjeta boosted Herceptin sales as they both are administered in combination.
