Roche’s growth continues in third quarter of 2012

Roche has published its financial report for the third quarter of 2012 and confirmed its growth targets for the full year, based on its strong performance.

The group's sales have risen by four percent year over year during the first nine months of 2012 to 33.7 billion Swiss francs (27.23 billion pounds), with its cancer medicines portfolio and clinical lab business driving this success.

Strong market traction has been observed for the company's recently-launched oncology compounds Zelboraf, Erivedge and Perjeta, while sales in the US and emerging markets were noted as being particularly robust.

Moreover, the firm was also ranked as the most sustainable healthcare company globally in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the fourth year running.

Roche's chief executive officer Severin Schwan said: "We remain well on track to meet our full-year targets. Our pipeline has continued to deliver with 11 positive results out of 14 late-stage studies so far this year."

This comes in the same week that the company received US regulatory clearance for Accu-Chek Inform II, its new hospital point-of-care system for blood glucose testing.