Pharmaceuticals group Roche Holding has reported better-than-expected first-half profits as drug sales revived in the second quarter, but the embattled Swiss group said full-year operating results would be no better than last year. The company employs 250 people in Co Clare.

Adjusted for one-off factors, net profit of 2.988 billion Swiss francs - compared to SFr2.978 billion a year ago - was some SFr300 million more than analysts had expected. Net financial income rose 20 per cent to SFr1.5 billion, including gains from the sale of Laboratory Corp of America shares, helping to boost the bottom line.

But despite the upturn in the flagship pharmaceuticals division, Roche said its 2001 operating result would be similar to that in 2000, leading analysts to speculate the second half might be worse than initially thought. Roche forecast "good single-digit growth" in pharmaceutical sales for the year as a whole, after five per cent in the first half overall and 11 per cent in the second quarter.

"What we are not over-reacting to is the one single quarter that was particularly strong, but the trend of the first half-year we think is fully sustainable through the year," pharmaceuticals division chief Mr William Burns said. Much of the strength seen in the drugs division was down to cancer drugs like Herceptin and Mabthera/Rituxan from Roche's separately listed US biotech unit, Genentech.