Pharma Novartis sets slightly higher sales targets at Investor Day

Novartis raised its previous medium-term sales growth target at the "Meet the Management" investor day. The pharmaceutical company is basing its optimism on its pipeline and the drugs that have already been approved.

For the previously communicated period from 2023 to 2028, the pharmaceutical group is now specifically aiming for sales growth of 6% per year. This was previously +5 percent. Meanwhile, Novartis aims to continue to achieve a core operating profit margin of over 40 percent by 2027, according to a statement issued on Thursday.

At the same time, Novartis has rolled forward its growth targets to 2029 based on the current financial year. Based on strong growth in the current year - Novartis has raised its guidance every quarter so far - the Group expects sales to increase by 5 percent between 2024 and 2029.

"Novartis has completed its transformation into a pure-play innovative medicines company with deep knowledge and capabilities in our core therapeutic areas and technology platforms," CEO Vas Narasimhan is quoted as saying in the press release.

Various growth drivers

With the new forecast, the Basel-based company is also relying on the strong momentum with the brands already on the market, which, according to the press release, have a peak sales potential of more than 3 billion to more than 8 billion US dollars. The Group now expects to achieve higher peak sales than previously thought for drugs such as the psoriasis drug Cosentyx, the cancer drug Kisqali, Kesimpta (MS), the radioligand therapy Pluvicto and Leqvio (cholesterol).

According to the presentation, Novartis now believes that Cosentyx and Kisqali alone have a sales potential of more than USD 8 billion. The figure for the MS drug Kesimpta is more than six billion, followed by Pluvicto (more than 5 billion) and Leqvio (more than 4 billion).

In addition, Novartis will submit more than 15 regulatory filings in the coming years to further strengthen its growth profile, Narasimhan announced in the press release. "Longer term, we have identified more than 30 assets in the pipeline that have significant potential to rejuvenate our portfolio and deliver mid-single-digit growth beyond 2029."

While the majority of the portfolio stems from the company's internal research, complementary acquisitions remain an important element of Novartis' capital allocation policy, the press release continues.

SDA