Roche Holding AG said third-quarter sales grew 7% year over year, and confirmed its outlook for 2018.

The Swiss drugmaker's group sales reached about CHF13.97 billion for the quarter, up from CHF13.09 billion in the year-ago period.

The S&P Global Market Intelligence consensus third-quarter revenue estimate is about CHF13.83 billion.

Sales from Roche's pharmaceutical division reached about CHF10.86 billion, up 7% year over year from about CHF10.12 billion.

Meanwhile, the company's diagnostics division had third-quarter sales of about CHF3.11 billion, up 6% from about CHF2.98 billion in 2017.

For the nine months ended September, sales reached CHF42.08 billion, up 7% from about CHF39.43 billion in the year-ago period.

Multiple sclerosis treatment Ocrevus, as well as cancer medicines Perjeta, Alecensa and Tecentriq, were key growth drivers for the first nine months of 2018.

Roche said nine-month pharmaceutical sales in the U.S. grew 14% year over year at constant exchange rates, and reported an 8% drop in Europe due to biosimilar competition to cancer drugs MabThera, also known as Rituxan, and Tarceva.

For full year 2018, the company confirmed its outlook of mid single-digit sales growth and mid teen-digit core EPS growth, both at constant exchange rates. Core EPS are targeted to grow broadly in line with sales, excluding U.S. tax reform impact. Roche expects to further increase its dividend in Swiss francs.