Roche’s Q3 sales soar, and also secures new partnership with Warm Drive Bio

With recent news that Roche’s third quarter sales have risen by 6%, the company is continuing its dominance within the pharmaceutical market. Its new drug to treat chronic condition multiple sclerosis is one of many factors surrounding its positive results.

Gaining over 13 billion Swiss Francs, in comparison to 12.48 billion a year earlier, Roche’s other medicines, such as Perjeta and Alecensa have also supported business growth.  

"Based on the strong sales growth of our pharmaceuticals and diagnostics divisions in the first nine months, I am confident that we will achieve our full-year targets. The growth is largely driven by new product launches. I am particularly pleased about the regulatory approvals of Tecentriq, Gazyvaro and RoActemra in the EU," commented Chief Executive Severin Schwan.

Sales have rose internationally, with strong sales growth in both the US and Japan especially.

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The company’s new partnership with Warp Drive Bio will also raise Roche’s profile significantly, as it aims to further support the development of new antibiotics. Through the deal, Warp Drive will implement its Genome Mining Platform, and will further analyse natural product medicines which have not been looked at in depth previously to further this development.

Roche will consequently look to ultimately distribute any new antibiotic drug on the commercial market, although Warp Drive Bio will retain all rights surrounding any developments.

“Antimicrobial resistance is an extraordinary threat to global human health, and Warp Drive’s unique platform allows us to access a vast reservoir of uncharacterised natural products from which to identify novel antibiotics,” commented Laurence Reid, Warp Drive Bio’s Chief Executive.