Novartis Raises Core-Profit Outlook as Impairment Hits Reported Earnings

Novartis raised its 2026 core operating income outlook on 27 October after third-quarter sales and adjusted earnings improved, even as a drug-asset writedown hit reported profit.

The Swiss group now expects full-year core operating income to be flat or grow at a low-single-digit pace, in constant currencies. It previously forecast a low-single-digit decline. Sales guidance remains low-single-digit growth on the same basis.

Quarterly net sales rose 4% year on year to $14.52 billion. Core operating income climbed 11% in dollar terms, or 10% at constant currencies, to $6.04 billion. Its core operating margin reached 41.6%.

Reported operating income fell 59% to $1.84 billion and net income dropped 70% to $1.20 billion. Novartis said a $1.9 billion partial impairment of del-desiran, an experimental drug asset, weighed on results.

The core figures are adjusted, non-IFRS measures and should not be confused with reported profit. The full-year outlook is a management forecast, not a confirmed result.

Source: Novartis: Q3 2026 results and outlook.

Archival photo: Novartis research building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2019. Jim.henderson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped to 16:9 by Morval Universal; crop under the same licence.