Basel - Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, said it was confident it would meet full year targets after reporting an 8 per cent growth in sales in the first-quarter.

Last month Roche bought for 46.8 billion dollars the remaining 44 per cent stake in the US biotech firm Genentech that it did not already own.

The Swiss company said in July it would set out its plan for the rest of the year to include Genentech, including bringing a head of the US company to the Roche board.

New drugs Roche produced for leukemia and cancer had received approval by state regulators in the United States and the European Union.

Along with other well performing products, especially medicines for cancer, these were expected to further push sales growth in the remaining quarters.

Given the sales increases in both its pharmaceuticals and diagnostics divisions, Roche Chief Executive Officer Severin Schwan said in a statement he was "confident that we can achieve our full-year targets."

The Roche Group recorded total sales of 11.6 billion Swiss francs in the first quarter of 2009. In local currencies, this was an increase of 8 per cent and 7 per cent in Swiss francs when compared to the same period last year.

However, the sales presented a 1 per cent drop in US-dollar- terms, due to the recent strengthening of the currency. (dpa)