Drug sales helped Bayer avoid a bad run

Bayer's full-year results show a single-digit decline in sales in all of its business units in the fourth quarter, so the group managed to avoid a setback in 2017.
the group's division, the pharmaceutical division, rose 2.6 percent to 16.8 billion euros, adding 0.2 percent to 35 billion euros in 2017.
they must overcome the group's weak business growth in consumer health - down 2.9 per cent to 5.9 billion euros in 2017 - CropScience, which fell 3.4 per cent to 9.6 billion euros.
sales fell in the fourth quarter after Chinese authorities unexpectedly decided to shift their two skincare brands from over-the-counter to prescription, as U.S. consumer sales were hit by "continued weakness." Its pharmaceutical business was again led by Bayer's best-seller Xaralto, with sales of oral anticoagulants up 12.6 percent to 3.6 billion euros and eye drug Eyelea up 6.1 percent to 1.9 billion euros. However, sales growth has slowed for both companies over the past 12 months. Both brands, cancer drugs Xofigo and Stivarga, and pulmonary hypertension treatment Ademas, are seen by the company as its main growth brands. Although Xaralto and Eylea account for more than 80 per cent of the total, they have sales of more than 6.5 billion euros.
"Operationally, 2017 has been a year of ups and downs," Bayer CEO Warner Bowman said at a news conference in Leverkusen yesterday.
"decline" in its pharmaceutical business included several late-stage trial failures at the end of the year. They are a study of stage II stroke drug Xaralto involving 7,000 patients, a comprehensive trial of Eylea and a combination of drugs and equipment to treat pneumonia. But those failures were tempered later this year by positive results from the company's $1.5 billion acquisition of Larotrectinib, one of two cancer assets in Loxo Oncology.
Larotrectinib expects U.S. approval in the coming weeks, and the Loxo deal is an important indicator for Bayer, which's huge deal to buy Monsanto, the agrochemicals company, is now expected to be completed by June and will not derail other deals.
said at a news conference: "We have always said we will continue to drive the growth of our pharmaceutical, consumer and animal health businesses as we have in the past." "Projects like the 'Loxo deal' show that we are sticking to our creed."
outlook for 2018, Bayer expects sales across the group to continue to grow steadily, with pharmaceutical sales reaching 16.5 billion euros and sales of its five key products slowing to nearly 7 billion euros. (China Pharmaceutical 123 Network)