Pharma has good first half.

Germany's Merck KGaA saw H1 revenues increase by 7.2% to 3.76bn [euro], to give a profit after tax of 454.2m [euro], up from 84.3m [euro] in H1 2007. Revenues grew organically by 13%, but this was reduced to 7.2% by negative currency effects. Return on sales grew from 14.8% in H1 2007 to 18.1% in 2008.

In the US, Bristol-Myers Squibb saw a net Q2 sales growth of 16% from continuing operations to reach $5.2bn, to give pre-tax earnings of $1.2bn, 24% ahead of Q2 2007. At Pfizer, H1 revenues increased by 2% to $24bn, however, US revenues fell by 12% to $10.3bn, while international revenues grew by 15% to $13.7bn. Eli Lilly saw its H1 sales grow 12% to $10bn, while Schering-Plough's H1 sales grew from $6.2bn in 2007 to $9.6bn in 2008. Wyeth reported a 6% growth in net revenues at $11.7bn, while Abbott saw its H1 sales rise by 14.3%, 5.7% after currency impacts, to $14bn.

Swiss pharma major Roche saw group H1 sales grow by 10% in local currencies to CHF22bn, to give an operating profit before exceptional items down 6% at CHF7bn. Ceo Severin Schwan said: 'Roche posted a very good result in H1 2008. Sales of our cancer portfolio amd other key products in pharma and diagnostics are the main contributors to the strong performance. Particularly the emerging markets record a significant growth. We could also maintain our high profitability despite significantly lower Tamiflu pandemic sales, the impact from recent diagnostics acquisitions and considerably increased investments in R&D.'

In the UK, GlaxoSmithKline increased its H1 turnover by 3% to reach 11.6bn [pounds sterling], despite a 2% drop in Q2 due to generic competition in the US and lower than forecast Avandia sales. Meanwhile, in India, Dr Reddy's saw its Q1 2009 revenues increase by 25% to $350m, and also in Switzerland, Novartis reported an 11% increase in H1 sales to reach $20.6bn.