FRANKFURT, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis reported a 6% gain in fourth-quarter adjusted net income on Wednesday, helped by cost cuts and strong growth of recently launched drugs.
Core net income for the quarter came in at $3.13 billion, it said in a statement, missing analysts' estimate of about $3.3 billion, as per LSEG data.
Novartis also extended its mid-term guidance, saying it expected sales to grow 5% per year until 2028, when adjusting for currency swings. It had previously projected that pace of growth through 2027.
CEO Vas Narasimhan previously led a push to cut jobs and focus on fewer therapeutic areas and geographic markets, before spinning off and listing generic drugs business Sandoz late last year.
The spin-off means greater reliance on innovation at the core business, putting Narasimhan under more investor pressure, but he scored a major win last year when breast cancer drug Kisqali was shown to help a wider patient group in a study.
Quarterly sales growth was driven by a better-than-expected performance of established heart failure drug Entresto, Kesimpta for multiple sclerosis, and Kisqali.
However, revenue gains for Pluvicto, a precision radiotherapy against prostate cancer, and gene therapy Zolgensma against spinal muscular atrophy fell short of market expectations.
Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Rachel More, Kirsti Knolle and Varun H K
Source: Reuters