Roche reports ‘solid’ financial results for 2010

Roche has published its financial report for the 2010 full-year period, expressing satisfaction with what it describes as "solid overall results".

The company generated 47.47 billion Swiss francs (31.29 billion pounds) in sales for the year, remaining stable compared to 2009 in local currency terms, while single-digit growth was observed when excluding the expected drop in demand for Tamiflu.

Roche's pharmaceutical and diagnostics sales both grew faster than their respective overall markets, with drugs such as RoActemra and Lucentis highlighted as drivers.

The firm expects its performance to continue to improve in the coming year, while future prospects were suggested to be promising based on its late-stage pipeline of 12 new molecular entities.

Severin Schwan, Roche's chief executive officer, said: "The group results are solid despite an increasingly challenging market environment."

Earlier this month, the company posted clinical trial data for its new metastatic melanoma treatment RG7204, demonstrating its potential survival-enhancing benefits.