The world's fifth biggest drug maker posted a second-quarter net income of $1.55 billion (€1.25 billion) from $1.32 billion a year earlier. Sales also increased by 12 per cent to $6.97 billion from $6.2 billion.

Sales of branded drugs rose 15 per cent to $4.57 billion in the second quarter from $3.99 billion a year earlier, driven by brisk demand for cardiovascular and cancer medicines.

Diovan, the hypertension medicine saw a 30 per cent increase in sales to $756 million after an aggressive marketing campaign in the U.S. Novartis' Lotrel also posted a double-digit sales gain.

According to data from IMS Health, Novartis claimed its share of the global health-care market rose to 4.44 per cent in the first five months of the year, from 4.37 per cent in the year-earlier period.

Novartis' financial performance comes in the wake of a unsuccessful merger with Aventis earlier this year. A formal offer for the Franco-German group, which was eventually acquired by Sanofi-Synthélabo, was not made because of opposition from the French government.

A Novartis/Aventis link-up would have created the number two pharma company worldwide - and the number four in the US - with a strong profile in cardiovascular, oncology, vaccines and metabolic diseases.