ZURICH, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Swiss generic drugmaker Sandoz on Wednesday lowered its full-year sales growth guidance and lifted its core earnings margin forecasts after short-term biosimilar-supply constraints weighed on third-quarter results, sending shares down over 5% in early trading.
The company now expects net sales to grow by 5-6% at constant exchange rates, from mid-to-high-single-digit growth expected previously, and sees its core EBITDA margin reaching 23%-23.5% in 2026 compared with the previously forecast
increase of around 100 basis points from the 21.7% recorded in 2025.
• Third-quarter net sales of $2.94 billion missed the $3.01 billion analysts had expected in a Vara Research-compiled consensus
• Particularly its biosimilars unit slightly fell short of expectations with net sales reaching $998 million, a 17% jump at constant exchange rates compared with the same period last year, but below the $1.02 billion analysts had forecast
• At its capital markets day in September, Sandoz had outlined steep mid-term growth, aiming to more than double annual net sales by 2035 and increase its biosimilars portfolio to 100 drugs by 2040 from 13
• After expanding its biosimilars business in Europe, Sandoz said market conditions in Germany had proved more challenging than anticipated and that North America led the quarter's sales
• "We have great access to the government," Chief Executive Richard Saynor said on continuing conversations with the US administration after President Donald Trump threatened the generic industry with steep tariffs starting August 2028 unless drugmakers manufacture medicines domestically
• Sandoz in March had filed an anti-dumping complaint with the European Commission against imports of Chinese amoxicillin APIs, the active pharmaceutical ingredients of the type of penicillin made by Sandoz, accusing makers of market distortion
• "We're encouraged that another company has joined that claim," Saynor told Reuters. "We're clearly not the only company that's feeling this"
(Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier in Zurich; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Tomasz Janowski)
