Sanofi underperforms in second quarter
pharmafile | July 31, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Sanofi-Aventis had a below par second quarter and faces a generic threat to sales of top-selling drug Plavix in Germany.
The company's total sales fell by 3.6% to Euro 6.9 billion (£5.5 billion) and its profits saw a steeper 4.4% decline to Euro 1.7 billion when minority interests – mainly payments to partner Bristol-Myers Squibb – are excluded.
Generic competition for sleeping pill Ambien in the US and for colorectal cancer drug Eloxatin in Europe was behind the sales slide.
Sales of Sanofi's Ambien franchise were down by 24% to Euro 191 million and Eloxatin declined by 14% to Euro 326 million.
The figures left analysts unimpressed and were compounded by four pipeline drugs being abandoned: ilepatril (AVE 7688) for uncontrolled hypertension and chronic kidney disease, SL65.0472 for peripheral arterial disease and two potential depression treatments – Amibegron (SR58611) and SSR149415.
"The revenue performance was dire and the pipeline is unimpressive," Jeremy Batstone-Carr, an analyst at Charles Stanley & Co, told Bloomberg. He added that the "upside is very limited".
Positive developments in the period included a 6% increase in vaccines sales, which rose to Euro 657 million boosted by a strong showing from its range of influenza vaccines.
Vaccine sales currently account for less than 10% of Sanofi's total sales, but the company is looking to build this up and recently paid £276 million for Acambis, a UK biotech that specialises in vaccines.
The second quarter also saw Sanofi agreed to acquire Australian nutraceuticals/OTC business Symbion Consumer and bid for Czech generics company Zentiva.
Plavix threat
Sales of Plavix (clopidogrel) its biggest-selling product, increased by 5% to Euro 664 million, but could see this fairly modest growth reduced even further.
A court in Cologne has now given the green light for two generic versions of clopidogrel to be marketed, by Yes and a subsidiary of Ratiopharm.
Sanofi plans to appeal against this decision and said the generics use a different form of the pharmaceutical salt of clopidogrel to Plavix, as well as covering fewer indications.
