Novartis sticks to $200 million FY Entresto forecast after recommendation

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis on Monday stuck to its full-year forecast of $200 million (138 million pounds) in revenue from its new heart failure medicine Entresto "as of right now", even as analysts raised their estimates following an endorsement in global medical guidelines.

"We're confident in the forecast we've laid out in the first-quarter call," Chief Medical Officer Vas Narasimhan said in an interview. "As of right now, there's no changes to the outlook but we are also extremely confident in the long-term outlook for this product."

The company has forecast peak annual sales eventually topping $5 billion.

Introduced last year, Entresto got off to a sluggish start, with only $17 million first-quarter sales. On Saturday, however, U.S. and European heart experts gave the highest "Class 1" recommendation to the medicine, buoying optimism sales in both regions will accelerate.

Analysts at Leerink on Monday boosted their forecasts for the drug in 2016 to $250 million.

(Reporting by John Miller, editing by David Evans)