GENEVA (AP) — Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG posted an 11 percent rise in first-half profit Thursday boosted by strong sales of its blockbuster cancer drugs.

 

The Basel, Switzerland-based company said its core net income, or profit, during the first six months of the year increased to 6.65 billion Swiss francs ($7.09 billion), up from 5.98 billion francs in the comparable period of 2012 — of that 6.5 billion francs was attributable to shareholders up 12 percent on the previous year.

 

The world’s biggest manufacturer of cancer drugs, which reports earnings only every six months, said Thursday that its top drugs, Avastin, Rituxan and Herceptin, and new breast cancer treatments Perjeta and Kadcyla contributed to strong first-half sales of more than 23.3 billion francs, up 4 percent from the first half of 2012.

 

Chief Executive Severin Schwan said Roche was putting most of its effort into developing products from some 68 new molecular entities in its pharmaceuticals pipeline and 55 potential diagnostics platforms and tests.

 

The company will also continue to focus on “bolt-on acquisitions,” Schwan said. Its first-half results, he said, were “driven by our existing portfolio, recently launched cancer medicines Perjeta and Kadcyla, as well as continued growth in the clinical laboratory business.”