Shares of Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG NVS after the company raised its full-year guidance following better-than-expected first-quarter results.
Novartis reported first-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.80, up 17% year over year (23% on constant currency), beating the consensus of $1.67.
The company’s sales reached $11.83 billion, up 10% year over year and 11% on constant currency, beating the consensus of $11.43 billion.
Volume contributed 14 percentage points to growth. Generic competition had a negative impact of 2 percentage points, and pricing had a negative impact of 1 percentage point.
“Our performance was broad-based across all key growth brands and geographies, allowing us to raise guidance for the full year 2024,” said Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis.
“The momentum in our business and pipeline gives us continued confidence in our mid- and long-term growth outlook,” he said.
Heart failure drug Entresto sales reached $1.9 billion, up 36%, and psoriasis drug Cosentyx sales increased 25% to $1.3 billion.
Cancer drug Pluvicto, hit by supply crunch, reported sales of $310 million, up 47%.
The company said former Bristol Myers Squibb Co’s BMY CEO Giovanni Caforio would be proposed as chair of the board of directors at its 2025 annual shareholders meeting as Joerg Reinhardt will not run again after 12 years in office, in line with the group’s tenure limits.
Guidance: Novartis said 2024 net sales are anticipated to pick up by a high-single to low-double-digit percentage, up from a previous outlook of mid-single-digit growth.
The company also revised its expectations for core operating income, which is now expected to increase by a low double-digit to mid-teens percentage, up from the high single-digit growth forecast prior.
Earlier this month, Novartis confirmed plans to file for Pluvicto pre-taxane label expansion in the second half of 2024 based on data from its Phase 3 PSMAfore study.
Read Next: Novartis Agrees To Acquire German Blood Cancer-Drug Developer MorphoSys For €2.7B.
Price Action: NVS shares are up 5.22% at $100.09 during the premarket session at the last check Tuesday.
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