Dive Brief:
- With solid Q1 earnings, Novartis is looking for more acquisitions in the two- to five-billion dollar range, based on a statement from CEO Joe Jimenez.
- Q1 core operating income was $3.55 billion, which exceed the $3.17 billion expectation from analysts.
- On March 2, Novartis completed a three-way asset swap in which it sold its vaccine business to GKS and bought GSK's cancer drugs, while also creating a joint venture to sell consumer healthcare products.
Dive Insight:
Novartis had a good first quarter and has been able to bring more business units into the fold that will eventually generate revenues and profit. But it wants (and needs) more new assets in order to keep growing.
Novartis is facing large-scale patent expiry of several of its drugs, which will result in a loss of about one-fifth of its revenues. Despite this challenge, however, net sales for the pharmaceutical division grew 1% to $7.1 billion during the first quarter. The outlook at this point is strong.