Novartis eyes sales growth above 10 pct in '08-12

PARIS, March 27 (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG (NOVN.VX) expects the launch of new drugs to result in average sales growth of over 10 percent per year between 2008 and 2012, its chairman and chief executive said in a newspaper interview.

"2007 will be an interesting year. We are going to lose the patents for our anti-fungal Lamisil and epilepsy treatment Trileptal. Meanwhile we will invest hundreds of millions in the launch of new drugs, which will not have a full impact (on our sales) immediately," Daniel Vasella told French daily Le Figaro.

"But this should allow us to achieve average revenue growth of over 10 percent per year between 2008 and 2012," he said.

Commenting on the group's acquisition policy, Vasella said: "It would be a mistake not to make acquisitions. I rule out nothing and we are looking at all dossiers in a rational manner,"

((Writing by Dominique Vidalon, editing by Quentin Bryar; Reuters Messaging: rm://dominique.vidalon.reuters.com@reuters.net; email: dominique.vidalon@reuters.com; Telephone: +33 1 49495432)) Keywords: NOVARTIS FORECAST/

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