MORNING NEWS

Roche faced significant headwinds from exchange rates in the first half of 2026. Consequently, the key financial metrics in the reporting currency, the Swiss franc, are below the prior-year figures. On Thursday, the pharmaceutical company reaffirmed its previous targets for the full year. In the first six months, Roche generated sales of 30.4 billion Swiss francs. While this represents a 2.0 percent decline in the reporting currency (Swiss francs), it translates to a 6.0 percent increase at constant exchange rates. The company has thus met its own target, which is based on constant exchange rates. As usual, the larger Pharmaceuticals division contributed the lion’s share of group revenue, with 23.6 billion (-1.0%). In the Diagnostics business, Roche generated revenue of 6.7 billion (-3.0%).

Following a strong first half of 2026, Lonza has lifted its full-year margin forecast. The contract pharmaceutical manufacturer reported revenue of 3.4 billion Swiss francs, representing 16 percent growth in local currency—driven by a favorable phase distribution and a low prior-year base. Core EBITDA rose 27 percent to 1.2 billion Swiss francs, and the corresponding margin improved by 4.4 percentage points to 34.8 percent, the company announced on Wednesday. As a result, both core EBITDA and the core EBITDA margin exceeded analysts’ expectations, while revenue was roughly in line with estimates.

Despite generic competition, Novartis returned to a growth trajectory in the second quarter. Management has confirmed its previous outlook for the full year. According to a press release issued Tuesday, second-quarter revenue totaled $14.4 billion. This represents a 3 percent increase compared with the same period last year. At constant exchange rates (CXR), revenue increased by 1 percent. In the first quarter, Novartis had still reported a decline due to the launch of generic versions of key blockbuster drugs.

South Korea’s Samsung Biologics confirmed on Monday having made an all-cash bid of 1.46 billion Swiss francs ($1.8 billion) for Switzerland’s PolyPeptide Group, which specializes in peptide-based active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Docmorris accelerated its growth in the second quarter. The Swiss online pharmacy benefited from a strong increase in sales of prescription drugs in Germany. The company confirmed its full-year EBITDA target. External sales rose by 15 percent to 310 million Swiss francs.

Roche is launching a new diagnostic test for the hepatitis D virus. According to the company, the test, called Cobas HDV, is the first fully automated high-throughput test for this disease. It is designed to enable reliable detection of the virus and monitoring of treatment success, as the diagnostics and pharmaceuticals company announced on Tuesday.

PepsiCo Chief Executive Ramon Laguarta said the Iran war had a meaningful impact on business during the latest quarter, resulting in a slowdown in the conversion of traffic to purchases. "Will it change in the coming months? It all depends on the price of gas," he said on a call with analysts Thursday.

Cocoa products manufacturer and trader Barry Callebaut began to see a return to volume growth in the third quarter of its staggered 2025/26 fiscal year—for the first time in two years. However, this was not enough at this stage to reverse the downward trend observed over the first three quarters combined. Nevertheless, the 5.7% rebound observed between March and the end of May reduced the volume contraction—which had stood at 6.9% at the midpoint of the period—to 2.8%. In terms of revenue, the multinational reported sales of 9.56 billion francs for the first nine months of its staggered fiscal year, down 12.7% year-over-year, according to a statement released Thursday.

Samsung Electronics projected a 19-fold jump in second quarter operating profit, extending its record earnings streak on booming demand for artificial-intelligence chips, though the upbeat outlook did little to lift its shares. The South Korean technology company has extended its run of record quarterly revenue and operating profit since the final quarter of 2025. Its chip-making division is expected to fuel even stronger earnings growth this year, many analysts said, citing booming demand for AI chips. Samsung said in a preliminary earnings report Tuesday that its operating profit likely reached an all-time high of about 89.4 trillion won, equivalent to $58.47 billion, for the three months ended June.

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix has lowered the fundraising target for its planned U.S. stock market listing to about $28 billion following the recent decline in its stock price. The world’s second-largest manufacturer of memory chips announced in a regulatory filing with the South Korean stock exchange that it intends to raise 43.141 trillion South Korean won—equivalent to approximately $28 billion—by issuing American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq technology exchange.