The Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has announced an improved third quarter. The net profit was $2.48 billion on the previous year. The turnover of the Basel-based pharmaceutical company decreased by seven percent to $13.81 billion. Excluding exchange rate effects, there was a slight drop in sales of two percent.
The strong dollar and increasing competition in the U.S. market for its top-selling drug have affected Novartis. The reason for the increased competition is that for the money making drug Diovan for high blood pressure, the patent has expired in the United States. In contrast, recent new medications have proven successful. In the third quarter, these made up more than a third of the total sales of the Novartis Group.
[ilink url=“http://www.novartis.com/investors/event-calendar/index.shtml#2012-10-25_q3-results“] Link zur Quelle (Novartis)[/ilink]