Novartis Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Novartis (NYSE: NVS ) reported second-quarter financial results on Tuesday. The transcript from the company's second-quarter earnings call has been provided below. APIs provide real-time access to earnings call transcripts and financial data. Visit to learn more.

9 billion. The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance for 2026, expecting low single-digit growth in net sales and a decline in core operating income. Notable growth drivers include Kisqali, Kesimpta, and Scemblix, with Kisqali showing a 43% increase in constant currencies. Pluvicto and Leqvio also demonstrated strong growth, with expectations for further expansion following regulatory updates.

Strategic initiatives include advancing its pipeline with upcoming pivotal readouts and potential multi-blockbuster assets like ianalumab. Operational highlights include reaffirming a $10 billion peak sales goal for Kisqali and expanding global reach for key products. Management emphasized disciplined capital allocation, with ongoing share buybacks and investments in R&D. No change in M&A strategy, focusing on bolt-on acquisitions and selective larger deals fitting strategic criteria.

Full Transcript Sharon, Operator All participants will be in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions by pressing star 1 and 1. At any time during the conference, please limit yourself to one question and return to the queue for any follow-up. A recording of the conference call, including the Q&A session, will be available on our website shortly after the call ends.

With that, I would like to hand over to Mr. Nigel Trotman, Head, Business Planning and Analysis and Digital Finance. Please go ahead, sir. Nigel Trotman, Head, Business Planning and Analysis and Digital Finance Thank you, Sharon.

Good morning and good afternoon, and welcome, everyone, to our Q2 2026 conference call. The information presented today contains forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors. These may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. S.

Securities and Exchange Commission. Before we get started, and as a reminder, please kindly limit yourselves to one question at a time, and we'll cycle through the queue as needed. And with that, I'll hand over to Vas. Vas Narasimhan, Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Nigel, and thanks everyone for joining today's conference call.

Moving to Slide 4, as you saw in the results we released earlier today, Novartis delivered strong performance across our priority brands and launches while advancing the pipeline, allowing us to return to growth. 9 billion. Mukul will go through the numbers in more detail later on in the call, but we're reaffirming our full year guidance for 2026. We also had some important pipeline highlights which I'll talk about more during the course of the conference call, including updated Kisqali OS data, the Delbrax biomarker data in FSHD, as well as some other regulatory milestones we were able to deliver over the course of the quarter.

Then moving to Slide 5, our growth drivers continued a strong trajectory in quarter two. They were up 36% in constant currencies. Some of the highlights include strong performance from Kisqali, Kesimpta, Scemblix, solid performance from Pluvicto, and strong performance as well from Leqvio. So overall, taken together, these growth drivers are performing strongly.

We believe that gives us momentum going into the second half of the year as we now move beyond the Entresto patent expiry and set us up well to deliver on our midterm growth guidance. Now moving to Slide 6. Kisqali was up 43% in constant currencies on the quarter. We outpaced the CDK4/6 market.

We had strong performance in the US and outside the US. In the US we were up 39%, reaching over a billion dollars in sales for the first time. We continued our metastatic breast cancer leadership with an increasing share in first line and we also sustained our early breast cancer NBRx and TRx leadership, with 58% of new patients now from our exclusive N0 and N1 nodal population. We also continue to grow our total prescriber base, up 16%, and we see future growth continuing to be driven by these exclusive Kisqali early breast cancer segments.

Outside of the US we were up 49%. With continued metastatic leadership, our growth was accelerating in our EBC launches. We're now approved in 76 countries and reimbursed in 42. And as you can see in the chart, in a case study in Germany we've reached 79% EBC NBRx share.

We're having similar performance in other key markets. Overall, we're pleased with the trajectory for Kisqali and remain confident in our $10 billion peak sales goal. Now moving to slide seven. We're announcing today also updated six-year follow-up data demonstrating that Kisqali showed clinically meaningful OS in that broadest at-risk EBC population.

That data will be presented at an upcoming congress. This is the 6-year prespecified landmark data for IDFS as well as for OS. The IDFS benefit continues over time and continues to strengthen the case for use in the broadest at-risk EBC population. Safety remained consistent with the known profile of Kisqali.

We believe this data underscores the value of dual inhibition with Kisqali and endocrine thera