Roche hikes profit goal as Tamiflu sales triple

So sick of them getting rich from making people sick!


[link to www.marketwatch.com]

Excluding exceptional items, its profit rose 11%, and sales climbed 9% to 24 billion francs. Both earnings and revenue topped analyst estimates.

Roche shares climbed 2.9% in Zurich trade.

First-half pharmaceutical sales grew 11% -- which Roche said was twice the rate of the global market -- driven by cancer medications, flu medicine Tamiflu, hepatitis drug Pegasys and Lucentis, an ophthalmology medicine.

Global sales of Tamiflu rose more than triple to 1.0 billion Swiss francs, Roche said, following the worldwide spread of swine flu.

Roche said it's going to expand Tamiflu production capacity to 400 million packs by the start of 2010.

The company expects core earnings per share growth, at constant exchange rates, to be at least 10% in 2009 and 2010. That measure of earnings rose 20% in the first half.