Sales stay sluggish at Sanofi
pharmafile | November 2, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing |
Sanofi-Aventis outperformed expectations in the third quarter, after a strong performance from its vaccines business and the recovery of blockbuster anti-blood clot drug Plavix.
Sales of flu and meningitis vaccines helped third quarter sales rise 4% to Euro 7 billion, but pharma sales – the majority of its business – were sluggish.
Overall vaccine sales increased by 49% to Euro 943 million and the division will assume increasing importance for Sanofi if cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil can deliver on its market potential of $1 billion peak sales or beyond.
Sanofi co-markets Gardasil with Merck as part of their joint venture in Europe, where the vaccine was approved last year and has so far made sales of Euro 101 million.
But sales in the company's pharmaceutical division fell by 0.3% to Euro 6.1 billion, driven down by generic competition for its sleeping pill Ambien in the US and colorectal cancer drug Eloxatin in Europe.
There was some good news for Sanofi's pharma business – sales of Plavix bounced back after generic company Apotex flooded the market with a generic version of the drug for s short period last year.
Branded sales fell sharply as US wholesalers stocked up, and sales of Plavix have only now returned to levels seen before Apotex launched its generic competitor.
Sanofi has also decided to widen its diabetes development programme for its obesity treatment Acomplia as an add-on to existing treatments like metformin and insulin.
The company plans to submit Acomplia to regulators in 2009 for an indication in type II diabetes. It also plans to submit a fixed combination of Acomplia and metformin in 2010.
Acomplia is known as Zimulti in the US, but has still not been approved there because of FDA concerns about depression side-effects.
Concern about the side-effects have hit sales in Europe, meanwhile, with the regulator demanding stronger label warnings about the risks.
Sales declined slightly from Euro 22 million in Q2 to Euro 21 million in Q3, a worrying slide for the drug which the company still says is a flagship brand of the future.
Generic competition is also set to intensify for Ambien IR and Eloxatin, and while Acomplia is not expected to provide any substantial revenue until a possible approval in a new indication, the company is running short on options for building growth.
Some analysts believe Sanofi has to boost its portfolio by acquiring a biotech company, a move which its leaders have indicated their interest in.
