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By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Roche said on Thursday it is targeting a continued increase in adjusted earnings per share (EPS) at a high single-digit percentage this year, helped by lower costs and growth from drugs such as eye treatment Vabysmo and cancer drug Phesgo.
The goal, which is adjusted for currency swings, would mark continued earnings momentum as the Swiss drugs and diagnostics company said in its earnings statement that adjusted 2024 EPS rose 7%, also before foreign exchange effects.
Analysts at Swiss bank Vontobel said the 2025 guidance was conservative, which was an expected stance taken by Roche.
Total operating profit, adjusted for one-offs, came in at 20.8 billion Swiss francs ($23.0 billion) last year, just shy of average market expectations of about 21 billion francs.
Key growth drivers included Vabysmo, to counter a common form of blindness in the elderly, with currency-adjusted 2024 sales up 68% at 3.86 billion francs, holding its own against competition from Regeneron and Bayer's Eylea.
Breast cancer drug Phesgo, a more convenient alternative to Roche's established Perjeta, saw revenues jump 62% to a better-than-expected 1.74 billion francs.
Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker, who has acquired a variety of drug technologies to offset falling cancer drugs sales, has also slashed development costs and pushed to speed up market launches.
Schinecker said in a media call on Thursday that Roche's major production sites in the United States positioned it very well for the prospect of trade tariffs raised by President Donald Trump.
($1 = 0.9065 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Rachel More, Miranda Murray and Tomasz Janowski)