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GENEVA (AP) - Demand for cancer drugs and an anti-flu treatment being stockpiled against a possible influenza pandemic helped boost Roche Holding AG's third-quarter sales by 20 percent, the pharmaceutical giant said Wednesday.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, sales rose to 8.82 billion Swiss francs ($6.79 billion) from 7.37 billion francs in the third quarter of 2004.
While cancer drugs were the biggest contributor to growth in the quarter, much of the attention remained on Tamiflu. Until a vaccine becomes available, the drug is seen as the most effective medical defense against a flu pandemic that is expected to result if the virus causing the current international outbreak of bird flu changes into a virulent human influenza strain.
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