Pharmaceuticals Sandoz continues on growth path in 2024 thanks to strong biosimilars division
The generics specialist Sandoz is benefiting from its independence. This is shown by the results for 2024, the first full year since the spin-off from Novartis in 2023. Growth is expected to continue in the current year.
05.03.2025, 07:26
05.03.2025, 08:28
SDA
As the Basel-based company announced on Wednesday, sales in 2024 climbed by a good 7 percent to USD 10.4 billion. At constant exchange rates, the increase would have been 9 percent. Sandoz has thus met its own forecast of sales growth in the high single-digit percentage range.
For CEO Richard Saynor, the first priority is to build confidence in the company, as he has repeatedly said on previous occasions. He also describes the figures presented in the press release as "strong overall". At the same time, Sandoz has made progress in reorganizing the business and created a sustainable platform for future growth.
Of the two divisions, the generics business contributed 7.5 billion, an increase of 1 percent. The much more lucrative biosimilars business, on the other hand, grew by 29 percent to just under 2.9 billion dollars.
This means that 72 percent of Group sales were attributable to the generics division and 28 percent to the biosimilars business. In the medium term, Sandoz is aiming for the biosimilars business to contribute around 30 percent of sales in order to help the company's profitability.
Biosimilar growth strong
As shown in the presentation for the analysts' conference later on, Sandoz currently has 28 biosimilar candidates in various stages of research.
In terms of regions, Europe remains the largest sales market for Sandoz with a 52 percent share - in both business areas. The USA accounted for 23 percent of sales and the international market for 25 percent.
In the USA, Sandoz generated sales of USD 815 million with its biosimilars. Compared to 2023, this represents an increase of 80 percent. In the medium term, Sandoz is aiming to become the market leader in this business area in the USA.
On the profit side, core EBITDA, which is adjusted for various factors, amounted to 2.1 billion, an increase of 19 percent. Sandoz puts the corresponding margin at 20.1 percent, compared to 18.1 percent in the previous year. Sandoz attributes this to growing sales and initial savings from the transformation program.
The bottom line was a core net profit of almost 1.2 billion US dollars, which is 23 percent higher than the previous year's figure.
Aiming for further growth
Shareholders are to participate in this with a dividend of CHF 0.60 per share, after receiving CHF 0.45 in the previous year.
For the current year, the Basel-based company is targeting net sales growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range at constant exchange rates. The core EBITDA margin is expected to be around 21 percent.
