Strong Performance of Novartis Pharmaceutical Company Paves Way for Continued Growth

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) (Basel, Switzerland) showed strong global financial growth for the second half of 2008, despite sales declines in the U.S. market. Novartis is involved in the research, manufacturing and distribution of both patented and generic medicines for humans and animals, vaccines, diagnostic equipment and other health-related products. Overall, for the first half of 2008, the company showed a global net sales increase of 11%, reaching about $20.6 billion. Net sales in most countries were up, although compared with the first half of 2007, the U.S., which had net sales of about $6.2 billion, showed an 8% drop.

In a conference call discussing the company's performance, Joseph Jimenez, CEO of Novartis Pharma AG, noted that sales in proprietary pharmaceuticals had been strong, with the hypertension drugs Tekturna, Exforge and Diovan bringing in over $3 billion of sales for the first of half of 2008, an increase of 20% from last year. Sales of oncology (cancer-fighting) drugs increased 14%, contributing nearly $4 billion of sales. As is typical of many industrial sectors, emerging-market nations showed extremely strong growth. Net sales in Turkey, Romania and Brazil increased 58%, 46% and 61%, respectively.

With increased revenues, Novartis is continuing increased expansion worldwide. Industrial Info, as part of its http://www.industrialinfo.com/prodserv/prodserv.jsp?pagerequest=dbproducts International Industrial Database is currently tracking $1.4 billion of active projects of Novartis throughout the world. In the U.S., the largest of these projects is the construction of a $600 million grassroot vaccine plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Construction of the plant began in 2007 and is expected to be complete by the end of 2010. The facility plans to manufacture 150 million doses per year of vaccines and hopes to obtain lucrative government supply contracts. Industrial Info is tracking another $49.5 million of Novartis projects in the U.S. and $750 million of projects globally.

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Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.