On Thursday, Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG announced that sales for the first nine months of 2014 edged down in comparison to last year period. One of the reasons for lackluster performance was the currency fluctuations. Many currencies were weak against the Swiss franc throughout the year and especially the US dollar.

But if the currency aspect is not considered, the sales of cancer drugs have improved and there is an increased demand for emerging new products.

As per the company, the group sales were 34.8 billion Swiss francs and the amount for the same time period in 2013 was 34.9 billion francs. It means that the sales for this year remained stable or could be called as flat sales.

In the Pharmaceuticals Division, the sales witnessed a rise of 4% amounting to 26.965 billion francs. Authorities concerned were of the view that the oncology section has largely influenced the sales of the Pharmaceuticals Division and especially, the medicines for HER2-positive breast cancer, including Herceptin, Perjeta and Kadcyla. Officials said sales of cancer medicines increased by 21%.

Within the division, the US sales were 5% higher, Europe improved by 3% and Japan showed the maximum growth of 7%. When it comes to diagnostics sales, it was up by 6% at 7.792 billion francs.

When it comes to full year projection for the year, Roche showed low to mid single digit growth in Group sales at constant exchange rates. It is expected that the company will increase its dividend.

Roche also announced that it has completed the acquisition of InterMune in September. The company also publicized that the US Food and Drug Administration has given green signal to Esbriet (pirfenidone) for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

The drug was approved on the basis of a data from a large, placebo-controlled Phase III study called ASCEND. In the study, more number of patients who received Esbriet witnessed a delay in the decline of lung function compared to those who received placebo.