Roche reports positive growth during 2013 business year

Roche has announced its financial results for the 2013 fiscal year, during which its group sales rose by six percent to 46.8 billion Swiss francs (31.47 billion pounds).

Growth during the year was driven by strong sales of products from the company's HER2 breast cancer franchise, as well as Avastin, MabThera/Rituxan, Actemra/RoActemra and Lucentis. Diagnostics sales were also up four percent.

During the year, the company was able to achieve positive regulatory decisions for Kadcyla, Perjeta and subcutaneous Herceptin, while making significant research progress, with 15 new molecular entities in late-stage development.

In 2014, Roche expects sales to continue growing at a low to mid-single digit rate.

Roche's chief executive officer Severin Schwan said: "2013 was a very good year for Roche. We exceeded our financial targets with strong demand for our existing products and positive uptake of recently launched medicines and diagnostics."

Earlier this month, the company announced the launch of a new system for requesting analysable patient-level data, allowing researchers to gain easier and more open access to its clinical data for research purposes.