ROCHE Holding AG, the pharmaceuticals giant, said yesterday strong sales of its anti-cancer drugs helped lift full-year net profit by 25 percent.
Net income rose to 11.44 billion Swiss francs (US$10.48 billion) - or 11.85 francs per share.
Sales reached 46.1 billion francs, beating those of its rival Novartis, which posted sales last year of 43.5 billion francs.
The company reports earnings figures only for the half year and full year.
Roche shares dipped 0.4 percent to 188.60 francs on the Zurich exchange yesterday.
Roche said sales of the rheumatoid arthritis and non-Hodgkins lymphoma treatment Rituxan topped 5.5 billion francs in 2007, making it the company's best-selling drug ahead of cancer medicines Herceptin and Avastin.
The Basel-based company said sales of its anti-influenza drug Tamiflu dropped 19 percent to 2.09 billion francs, indicating that the period of strong government orders in the wake of fears over a pandemic bird flu outbreak was coming to an end.
Roche said it anticipates a further decrease in Tamiflu sales through 2008.
Excluding Tamiflu, the company said it expects group sales "in local currencies to increase at a high single-digit rate."
Severin Schwan, the head of Roche's diagnostics division, said the acquisition of Ventana Medical Systems Inc is expected to be completed by the second quarter of the year. Roche won the approval of Ventana's board for the deal last week after raising its offer per share by about 19 percent to US$89.50, valuing the United States-based maker of drug-testing instruments at US$3.4 billion.
Roche said it proposed to increase its dividend by 35 percent to 4.60 francs.