Roche boss expects the pandemic to weaken in the second quarter
For the pharmaceutical company Roche, the Covid 19 pandemic means light and shadow. The current business figures for 2021 have made this clear once again. For example, the diagnostics division benefited particularly strongly from the numerous corona tests sold, while the pharmaceuticals division suffered in part from the changed patient behavior.
“We expect that the influence of the pandemic will weaken from the second quarter of 2022,” announced Roche CEO Severin Schwan on Thursday during a conference call with journalists. With a view to the corona tests, the demand for the rapid tests should fall first.
As the group had previously announced in its annual figures, sales of corona tests and medicines are likely to fall by around CHF 2 billion in the current year. Tests and corona therapies together gave the group sales of around 7 billion francs in 2021, as Schwan further explained.
In the pharmaceuticals sector, the influence of the pandemic tends to have two sides. On the one hand, Roche benefits from the corona therapies sold. On the other hand, the patients’ fear of infection with the virus in other therapeutic areas is noticeable.
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