Sandoz Group AG

In H1 2026, net sales increased 5% at constant currencies, or 10% in U.S. dollars, from USD 5.2 billion to USD 5.8 billion. Core EBITDA increased 15%, core gross margin expanded to 49.7% from a year earlier (up 50 bps), and core EBITDA margin rose 90 bps to 20.9%. Core diluted EPS was USD 1.71, up 17%. Management free cash flow was USD 503 million, while one-off costs excluding litigation and some IT expenditures were USD 142 million in H1. For 2026, Sandoz still expects constant-currency net sales growth in the mid- to high-single-digit range and core EBITDA margin expansion of around 100 bps. Management also now expects overall pricing to decline by a mid-single-digit percentage in 2026, versus a prior view of low- to mid-single-digit decline, and currency should add about 2 percentage points to net sales this year (down from a prior 4-point assumption).

Richard Saynor framed the half as evidence that Sandoz is strengthening its position as the global leader in affordable medicines and an increasingly important voice in health care policy and medicine security. He repeatedly pointed to the company’s biosimilar momentum, saying the pipeline now stands at 36 assets and describing the new Ljubljana development center and the SMI inclusion as signs of growing scale and relevance. His tone was confident and optimistic, especially on the “golden decade” for biosimilars, while emphasizing that recent launches and new markets like GLP-1s support growth into 2027 and 2028.

Remco Steenbergen focused on the quality of earnings and cash generation. He cited 5% constant-currency sales growth, 15% core EBITDA growth, 90 bps margin expansion to 20.9%, 17% EPS growth to USD 1.71, and management free cash flow of USD 503 million despite about USD 500 million of CapEx in H1; he also said CapEx should peak at around USD 1.1 billion this year. On the balance sheet, he noted liquidity of USD 2.3 billion, gross debt of USD 5.9 billion, net debt of USD 3.5 billion, and net debt/core EBITDA of 1.4x. He also said one-off costs were USD 142 million in H1 and should be around USD 0.3 billion for the full year, with no impact from the recent litigation settlements on 2026 guidance or the midterm outlook.

Analysts pressed on Afqlir uptake, Wyost/Jubbonti competition in Europe, U.S. tariff risk, semaglutide in Brazil and Canada, pricing pressure in Germany and North America, and the durability of biosimilar profitability. Management said Afqlir is seeing strong uptake broadly across launched markets, Wyost and Jubbonti have quickly established a strong lead in Europe and the U.S., and tariff discussions with the U.S. administration are early and non-committal but constructive. On pricing, Remco said the higher erosion in North America reflects launch mix and fast growth, while Germany’s tougher pricing stems from new tender/substitution dynamics that they do not expect to continue in 2027; Richard said semaglutide and other GLP-1 opportunities become more material in 2027-2028 and that compounding should fade as lower-cost fully manufactured generics enter.