| Sanofi-Aventis raised forecast on swine flu vaccines |
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30/10/2009 12:54 (22 Day 02:52 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- French drugs company Sanofi-Aventis SA on October 30 raised its full- year profit growth forecast, thanks to sales of swine flu vaccine. The pharmaceutical company reported a 6 percent rise in third-quarter profit.
Earnings per share will rise about 11 percent this year at constant exchange rates and excluding selected items, compared with an earlier estimate of around 10 percent, France’s largest drugmaker said, according to Bloomberg. The company expects to sell $500 million worth of swine flu vaccine this quarter.
The flu boost may not last beyond April, Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher said. The 49-year-old CEO is looking outside Sanofi’s own labs for products to sustain sales growth as older drugs like Plavix and Eloxatin face generic competition, the same source reported. Sanofi agreed to buy a French maker of nutritional supplements today and an experimental cancer drug from Micromet Inc. yesterday.
Third-quarter net profit rose 6.8% to EUR1.42 billion compared with EUR1.33 billion a year ago, the company said, The Wall Street Journal informs. Sales rose 8% to EUR7.4 billion from EUR6.85 billion a year ago, above analysts' estimates of EUR7.37 billion, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of 14 analysts. Double-digit sales growth of diabetes drug Lantus and blood thinner Lovenox helped offset a steep drop in sales of cancer treatment Eloxatin, which were hit by generics competition.
Lantus sales rose almost 22%, in a sign the company has managed to successfully shrug off the idea the drug could be linked to cancer. Eloxatin sales were down 44%, at constant exchange rates, to EUR193 million, as generics competition in the U.S. and Europe weighed on its performance, according to the same source. Generics competition to its Plavix drug, which posted 4% sales growth at constant rates to EUR664 million, is expected to accelerate in the fourth quarter in Europe, Viehbacher told journalists.
Swine flu treatments have boosted growth for several drugmakers, Reuters reported. "We will see quite a big bonus of sales (in the fourth quarter) of H1N1 and seasonal flu," Viehbacher said at a conference call. "I would see us continue to sell more or less at the same rate into 2010, at least up until late spring," he said. "Beyond that it is difficult to see if the pandemic will continue."
Sanofi is awaiting European Union regulatory approval for two versions of its H1N1 flu vaccine, expecting clearance for the Panenza vaccine in the next couple weeks and for the Humenza adjuvented, or booster-type, vaccine by mid-December, according to the same source. In the past quarter H1N1 sales were 78 million euros, with shipments to the United States beginning in September.
The world's third-largest pharmaceutical firm is a top maker of vaccines for the flu and other diseases, as well as its popular anticlotting medicines, its breast and prostate cancer drug Taxotere, and insomnia treatment Ambien, AP reported.
According to the same source, in late April, Sanofi-Aventis said it would narrow its research focus to fewer disease areas, something top competitors including Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. already have done.
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