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Novartis reports strong sales for the first half of 2007
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Product sales for Novartis increased by 14% during the first half of 2007, totaling $19.9 billion, the company announced in a press release.
The company attributed much of the strong sales growth to recently launched pharmaceutical products, including Lucentis (ranibizumab), which Novartis markets outside of the United States.
Net sales of Lucentis during the first half of 2007 totaled $101 million, with $72 million in sales during the second quarter.
Global sales of Visudyne (verteporfin) totaled $59.3 million for the second quarter, representing a 37.8% decrease over sales for the second quarter of 2006 and a 3.1% decline compared with the first quarter. U.S. sales of Visudyne totaled approximately $10.3 million for the second quarter, according to a press release from QLT, which co-promotes the drug with Novartis.
Overall, U.S. net pharmaceutical product sales increased 5% and helped to offset the impact of the Zelnorm suspension in March and generic competition for Lotrel, which began in May. However, the company expects the suspension of Zelnorm and the generic competition for Lotrel to negatively affect net sales by its pharmaceuticals divisions for the remainder of the year, according to the press release from Novartis.