Novartis
Q3 2022 Earnings Call
Oct 25, 2022, 8:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning, and good afternoon, and welcome to the Novartis Q3 2022 results release conference call and live webcast. [Operator instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator instructions] A recording of the conference call, including the Q&A session, will be available on our website shortly after the call. And with that, I would like to hand over to Mr.
Samir Shah, global head of investor relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Samir Shah -- Global Head of Investor Relations
Thank you very much, and good morning and good afternoon, everybody. Thank you again for taking the time to participate in Novartis' Quarter 3 conference call. Before we start, just a quick reminder of the safe harbor. The information presented today contains forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors.
These may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. For a description of some of these factors, please refer to the company's Form 20-F, its most recent quarterly results on Form 6-K that respectively were filed with and furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. And with that, I'll hand across to Vas.
Vas Narasimhan -- Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Samir, and thanks, everyone, for joining on today's conference call. Moving to the first slide, we take a couple of slides forward. Novartis delivered solid Quarter 3 performance really across all of our core value drivers. From a growth standpoint, group sales were up 4% in constant currencies.
That was driven both by solid performance in IM at 4% as well as in Sandoz. U.S. IM sales were up 8%, consistent with our strategy to continue to improve our position in the U.S. market.
From a productivity standpoint, group core operating income was up 5%, again driven by IM, which was up 7%. We also had continued our margin progression with a one percentage point improvement. Our savings from our SG&A program are on track and Harry will cover that in a bit more detail. From an innovation standpoint, we had some important events, particularly the approval of Pluvicto with a positive opinion in Europe from the CHMP.