Roche sales hit by lockdowns, despite COVID-19 test boost

A surge in demand for Roche's COVID-19 tests, as some governments even sent military jets to pick up supplies, failed to offset the hit to other parts of the healthcare company's business from the COVID-19 pandemic, it said on Thursday. Shares in the Swiss group slipped 1.5% in early trading after it reported a 10% drop in second-quarter revenue to 14.1 billion Swiss francs ($15.2 billion). Factoring out the strong Swiss franc, revenue fell 4%.