Novartis Raises Annual Sales Outlook After Q3 Net Profit Surges

(RTTNews) - Novartis AG (NVS), Swiss drug major, on Tuesday revised up its annual sales guidance after it reported a surge in net profit for the third quarter, helped by an increase in sales.

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, said: "Novartis delivered another quarter of strong operational performance in Q3, with sales up 10% and core operating income up 20%. All key growth drivers contributed to the momentum. With the momentum in our business and pipeline, we were able to once again upgrade our full-year guidance and remain highly confident in our mid-term outlook."

For the full year, the company now expects its core operating income growth in high teens against prior outlook for a growth from mid to high teens.

Annual sales now projected to grow in low double-digits, compared with previous expectation for a high single to low double-digit growth.

For the third quarter, net earnings of the drug maker stood at $3.185 billion or $1.58 per share, higher than $1.763 billion or $0.85 per share, recorded for the same period last year.

Sales improved to $12.823 billion from prior year's $11.782 billion.

Entresto brand generated sales of $1.865 billion, up 26 percent from last year. Sales of Cosentyx brand rose by 27 percent to $1.693 billion.