Novartis Quarterly Profit Misses Estimates Amid Alcon Woes
- Drugmaker appoints new CEO for Alcon unit as its sales drop
- Novartis forecasts 2016 sales, profit to be unchanged
Novartis CEO on Alcon Growth Plan, Patents, Pricing
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Novartis AG, Europe’s second-largest drugmaker, posted fourth-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates as revenue at its Alcon eye-care unit continued to plummet and the strength of the U.S. dollar eroded the value of global sales.
A measure of profit that the company calls core net income, which excludes results from operations that have been sold or discontinued as well as some costs, declined 5 percent to $2.71 billion, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said in a statement Wednesday. That missed the $2.9 billion average of 12 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Shares of Novartis fell by the most in four months.