Roche suffers double whammy as biosimilars, COVID-19 joined hands in weak quarter

Roche execs fingered biosimilars and COVID-19 as the culprits behind the company's first quarterly sales decline since 2011.

Together, copycats to Roche’s three top-selling cancer meds—Avastin, Rituxan and Herceptin—dealt a CHF 2.1 billion ($2.3 billion) blow to the Swiss pharma’s top line in the first half of 2020, the company said Thursday.