Chugai Pharmaceutical's first half ran on two export lanes: shipments of the haemophilia drug Hemlibra to majority owner Roche, which holds 59.89% of Chugai's shares, and of the itch-and-skin-disease antibody Nemluvio to Switzerland's Galderma. Core operating profit for the six months to June rose 21.0% to ¥329.1bn, well ahead of an already double-digit revenue gain.
Group revenue under IFRS climbed 14.7% to ¥663.3bn, and interim profit attributable to shareholders rose 19.2% to ¥231.7bn. Strip out one-off items such as intangible-asset amortisation and restructuring charges, and core interim profit came to ¥238.4bn, up 23.2%.
The growth sat overseas. Product sales outside Japan rose 14.1% to ¥328.6bn, driven by rising Hemlibra shipments to Roche and a sharp jump in Nemluvio exports to Galderma, which holds rights to sell the drug everywhere except Japan. Royalty and profit-share income rose 23.0% to ¥76.6bn, of which ¥68.4bn came from Roche alone, up 14.2% on the year. A broader other-revenue line, which mixes one-off milestone payments with royalties, jumped 44.5% to ¥96.8bn.
Domestic sales, the harder grind, still grew 6.5% to ¥237.9bn despite periodic NHI drug-price cuts and generic encroachment, which hit sales of the older cancer drug Avastin. Newer specialty products carried the domestic book: Vabysmo, Polivy, Enspryng and Fesgo all expanded, and the gene therapy Elevidys, launched in February, along with the lymphoma drug Lunsumio, gained traction in their first full half on the market.
None of this moved the outlook. Chugai left its January guidance untouched: core revenue of ¥1,345.0bn for the year (up 6.9%), core operating profit of ¥670.0bn (up 7.5%), core net profit of ¥485.0bn (up 7.5%) and core earnings per share of ¥295.00 (up 7.7%). The first half already banked 49.3% of the revenue target and 49.1% of the operating-profit target, textbook pacing that gives management no obvious reason to raise numbers before the third quarter. The annual dividend forecast stays at ¥132 per share, split evenly between the ¥66 already paid at the half-year mark and a matching year-end payment.
| Metric | First-half actual | Full-year guidance | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ¥663.3bn | ¥1,345.0bn (+6.9%) | 49.3% |
| Operating profit | ¥329.1bn | ¥670.0bn (+7.5%) | 49.1% |
| Net profit | ¥238.4bn | ¥485.0bn (+7.5%) | 49.1% |
| Core EPS | ¥144.84 | ¥295.00 (+7.7%) | 49.1% |
The pattern for investors to watch: Chugai's growth increasingly runs through export and royalty lines tied to Roche and Galderma rather than through a domestic market its own government keeps squeezing on price. Whether the unchanged full-year guidance proves conservative will show up when third-quarter results land later this year.