Roche reports strong sales growth in first half of 2014

Roche has announced its financial results for the first half of 2014, during which it generated a group sales total of 22.97 billion Swiss francs (14.96 billion pounds).

This represented a year-on-year increase of five percent on a constant exchange rate basis, with core earnings per share rising by seven percent on the same scale.

During the six months, the firm saw strong sales of its cancer medicines, particularly the breast cancer therapies Herceptin, Perjeta and Kadcyla, while its diagnostics division showed good growth, especially in the area of professional diagnostics.

Significant progress was also recorded in the development of the company's pipeline, with its cancer immunotherapy candidate anti-PDL1 receiving breakthrough therapy designation in the US and a new antibiotic therapy being fast-tracked for approval.

Roche chief executive officer Severin Schwan said: "Based on our half-year performance, I am confident that we will meet our full-year targets."

Earlier this month, the company strengthened its breast cancer pipeline further by agreeing a deal to acquire Seragon Pharmaceuticals via its subsidiary Genentech.