Roche CEO laments Swiss franc strength, continues U.S. investment
Roche It said sales fell in the first three months of the year as the strength of the Swiss franc and generic competition for some older drugs negatively affected the drugmaker.
First quarter sales were 14.7 billion Swiss francs ($18.7 billion), down 5% year on year; However, there was a 6% increase on a constant exchange rate basis.
Roche said the appreciation of the Swiss franc against most currencies, especially the US dollar, had a significant impact on results reported in Swiss francs compared to fixed exchange rates.
The Swiss franc is down 12% against the US dollar in 2025 and is down another 1% so far this year.
CEO Thomas Schinecker defended the company’s quarterly results, saying it was “a question of how you look at reporting” and that sales reported in US dollars rose 9% while the Swiss franc appreciated.
“We spend most of our money in the US and hold most of our debt in the US; we recently acquired another company in the US,” Squawk told Box Europe.
“We will continue to invest in the United States and do not see this as a major problem.”
Shares rose 2% in morning trading in Zurich, adding to its 12-month gain of 18%.
Performance of European pharmaceutical stocks over the last 12 months.
Roche, through its U.S. subsidiary Genentech, is among the pharmaceutical companies that signed a deal with the Trump administration last year to lower the price of its drugs for Americans..
In exchange, the companies agreed to a three-year grace period during which their products would not be subject to Trump’s drug-specific tariffs, as long as drugmakers invest more in U.S. production.
In April last year, Roche announced that it would invest $50 billion in the United States over the next five years, creating 1,000 jobs at the company and creating an additional 11,000 jobs to support new production capacities in the United States.
obesity gamble
Pharmaceutical giants are also under pressure as the industry faces a crisis A loss of exclusivity is expected to occur by the end of the decade, where older drugs will face generic competition.
Like many of its peers, Roche is planning acquisitions to increase future sales and develop drugs in-house.
So far the results have been mixed. An experimental pill used to treat multiple sclerosis roughly halved the number of relapses in two late-stage trials, it was reported Wednesday. But safety concerns remained, as more patients died while taking the drugs compared to the group receiving the placebo.
Roche plans to submit the drug for approval to the US Food and Drug Administration by mid-year, and Barclays analysts said they see “upside risk” despite safety concerns.
Roche is also betting big on future entry into the lucrative weight loss market, with its experimental drug CT-388 aiming to be in the top three. Novo Nordisk And Eli Lilly, those who currently dominate the market.
CEO Schinecker said Germany’s Handelsblatt said last month that Roche was targeting double-digit market share in weight loss.
The weight-loss market is still in its early days, Schinecker said. “If you look at what percentage of people are actually using these drugs, it’s still a pretty small percentage, so there’s still a lot of opportunity to help people struggling with weight,” he said, also pointing to broader health benefits of GLP-1 drugs beyond weight loss, even at low doses.
In the US, Roche’s most important market, sales rose 5% at constant exchange rates, driven by growth in asthma drug Xolair and the ongoing acquisition of hemophilia drug Hemlibra and blood cancer treatment Polivy.
The company said demand was strong in both its pharmaceutical and diagnostic segments, recording growth of 7% and 3% respectively.
It maintained its full-year guidance, targeting mid-single-digit sales growth in 2026. It expects core earnings per share to be in the high single-digit range at constant exchange rates.
