Novartis sees 4th-qtr 2010 net income fall 6% but still beats expectations

As a result of lower flu vaccine sales and a cancer drug candidate write-down, Swiss drug major Novartis (NOVN: VX) posted a 6% decline to $2.17 million in net income for the fourth quarter of 2010. However, this still beat the average forecast if $2.05 of 10 analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Net sales rose 10% (+11% at constant currency) to $14.2 billion. Revenue from Alcon, the ophthalmic firm acquired last year, were $1.8 billion for the quarter. Unfavorable currency movements depressed the result by 1 percentage point (excluding Alcon). Recently launched products provided $2.5 billion of net sales in the 2010 period, which represent 20% of total sales (excluding Alcon).

Pharmaceuticals sales for the three months grew 3% (+4% cc) to $8.0 billion driven by 7 percentage points of volume expansion, offset by 3 percentage points of price erosion. Recently launched products contributed 23% of Pharmaceuticals sales, up from 18% in 2009.