Roche CFO Alan Hippe said at the conference on Monday that the firm's diagnostic test capacity and installed based has "grown significantly" along with the greater emphasis on testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"COVID brought testing and diagnostics to a different level," and Roche expects to benefit in the first half of 2021 from increases in its installed base and capacities, Hippe said.
"We still think that testing will be important moving [forward], especially in the first half of 2021," he said, adding that serology testing is expected to be especially important as people who have been vaccinated look to test for COVID-19 antibodies.
During the year, Roche will further ramp up capacities for its PCR, rapid antigen, and rapid antibody tests, Hippe said.
The company noted in its presentation that its installed base has grown to 1,000 for its high-throughput Cobas 6800 and 8800 analyzers, which are used to run its Cobas SARS-CoV and Cobas SARS-CoV-2 & Influenza A/B tests. The analyzers enable between about 1,500 and 4,000 tests to be processed in 24 hours. In 2021, testing capacity using these analyzers is expected to be greater than 20 million per month, according to Roche.
Meanwhile, the installed base of the firm's high-throughput e411/601/602/801 line of analyzers, which enable up to 300 tests per hour, is now around 40,000. The analyzers are used to run the Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2, Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S, SARS-CoV-2 rapid antibody, and Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests. In 2021, testing capacities for the analyzers are expected to reach 100 million per month.
Further, Roche noted that the installed base now exceeds 5,000 Cobas Liat analyzers, which are used to run its SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza A/B point-of-care tests in about 20 minutes. In 2021, testing capacities for the Liat are expected to reach about 1 million tests per month, the firm said.
Roche further expects that its rapid antigen tests, which operate without an instrument and test for SARS-CoV-2 as well as SARS-CoV-2 & Influenza A/B, will reach a capacity of about 80 million per month in 2021.
Hippe confirmed Roche's previously announced full-year 2020 guidance for low- to mid-single-digit percent sales growth, but added that he anticipates its growth will be "perhaps more on the low-[single-digit] side."
"After a period of consolidation by the end of Q3 [and] beginning of Q4, the overall healthcare market went back into a lockdown mode …. and Q4 didn't get back as much [toward] the new normal as we had hoped for, at least not on the pharma side," he said. "During the pandemic we provided low-single-digit sales growth … while losing $5.05 billion in sales due to biosimilars competition. At the same time, we invested roughly $1 billion more into R&D, at constant rates, while defending the margin."
Within diagnostics, in the second half of 2021, the firm expects to experience a "pretty heavy base effect" because of the strength in sales of its high-throughput and point-of-care tests during the second half of 2020, Hippe said.
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