ZURICH, Oct 24 ― Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis raised its annual profit guidance today after posting strong third-quarter growth in sales and earnings following the spinoff of its generic unit Sandoz.

Its third-quarter performance beat expectations, with sales rising 12 per cent excluding Sandoz from the comparison to US$11.8 billion (RM56.3 billion) and net profit jumped 18 per cent to nearly US$3.6 billion.

"We have successfully executed the spin-off of Sandoz, allowing us to fully focus on high-value innovative medicines,” chief executive Vas Narasimhan said in a statement.

Novartis spun off Sandoz, one of the world's leading makers of generic and biosimilar medicines, and listed it on the Swiss exchange at the beginning of October.

The company said discontinued operations, most notably Sandoz, saw an eight-per cent increase in sales to US$2.5 billion while net profit was steady at US$250 million.

It added it plans to book in the final quarter an exceptional accounting gain of US$5.9 billion linked to the spinoff.

Novartis now plans to focus on five therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, immunology, neuroscience, solid tumours and haematology.

The company says it expects a mid- to high-teens rise in annual net profit, up from its previous guidance of an increase from low double digit to mid-teens.

It left its guidance for a high single-digit rise in sales unchanged. ― AFP