Sandoz shares down as Q1 sales fall short on biosimilar weakness

Investing.com -- Sandoz (SIX:SDZ) shares slid around 3% Wednesday after the Swiss drugmaker reported first-quarter 2025 sales that came in 5% below company-compiled consensus.

Excluding the impact of Cimerli and the divested China business, the miss narrows to 3%, according to Barclays (LON:BARC) analysts.

Both the Generics and Biosimilars segments underperformed, though the latter was notably weaker, missing consensus by 9%. International sales were 22% below expectations, partly reflecting the impact of the China divestiture from the prior-year comparison base.

In the U.S., biosimilars saw a net decline, though results were positive when excluding Cimerli. The segment was pressured by price erosion in both Cimerli and private-label adalimumab.

“We had assumed the annualisation of adalimumab (Humira biosimilar) would offset the withdrawal of Cimerli, but that wasn’t the case,” RBC Capital Markets analysts commented.

Moreover, Sandoz flagged weaker pricing for its private-label adalimumab, a point that analysts believe will be in focus during the analyst call later today.

In contrast, European sales exceeded expectations, supported by strong biosimilar performance—especially from recent launches such as Pyzchiva.

A recent legal challenge from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) over white-label bStelara was denied, and investor relations confirmed Sandoz plans to launch the private-label version soon, though no specific timeline was provided.

Similarly, the company gave no definitive schedule for the U.S. rollout of Tyruko and Enzeevu.

"This lack of a precise timing along with concerns related to tariffs should keep investors at bay for now," Barclays analysts led by Emily Field said.

Sandoz reaffirmed its full-year 2025 guidance and slightly improved its foreign exchange outlook, now expecting a 3% headwind at current rates versus a previous estimate of 4%.

“We think today’s results are a touch disappointing and we expect the call to focus on further impact from U.S. tariffs and expectations around new biosimilar launches in the U.S.,” the analysts continued.

The new launches include the HLX13 (bYervoy), for which Sandoz signed a commercialisation licence deal with Shanghai Henlius Biotech on Tuesday.