Geneva, Oct 22 (DPA) Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis Thursday reported a profit of $2.11 billion in the third quarter until the end of September, up 1 percent.
Net sales in the quarter reached $11 billion, up 3 percent over the same period last year, pushing sales in the first nine months of the year to 31.34 billion.
In the year to date, net income hit $6.1 billion, which was down 8 percent over last year, with Novartis saying currency movements and one-off charges were the cause.
High-growth emerging markets were becoming a larger part of the company’s profits, with net sales in the top six emerging markets rising 16 percent in local currencies from January through September “with only limited signs to date of adverse impact from global economic conditions”, the company said.
Novartis is one of the major pharmaceutical companies to have created a vaccine for the A (H1N1) pandemic, from which it expects boosts to sales for the rest of the year.
“Group net sales are now set to grow at a high-single-digit rate in local currencies, even excluding anticipated H1N1 pandemic flu vaccines sales in the fourth quarter of 2009,” the drug maker said.
It expected pharmaceuticals net sales to increase and operating and net income to reach “record levels”, though it warned currency fluctuations could impact growth.
