Sanofi battles strong headwinds in second quarter
pharmafile | July 29, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Sanofi
Sanofi’s acquisition of Genzyme helped its revenue grow in the second quarter, but underlying growth from the French firm disappointed.
Total sales grew by 6.9% to 8.3 billion euros, but when Genzyme’s sales were excluded, Sanofi’s revenue declined by 4%, due primarily to severe generic erosion.
The biggest losses came from the company’s blood thinner Lovenox, down 34.8% to 536 million euros and chemotherapy agent Taxotere, down 64.5% to 204 million euros for the second quarter.
Sales from Genzyme, which Sanofi acquired for $20 billion in February, were up 16% to 796 million euros and will help offset the troubles ahead for Sanofi. In the second quarter this boost helped Sanofi’s overall pharma sales grow by 7.7% to reach 7.15 billion euros.
But Genzyme failed to hit its target to raise production levels of Fabrazyme and Cerezyme, meaning Genzyme shareholders will see $1 knocked off their contingent value right, a key part of the deal between the two firms.
Generic erosion is already hitting European sales of Sanofi’s second biggest earner, the blood thinner Plavix (clopidogrel), and total sales fell by 2.4% to 510 million euros.
Meanwhile, sales of the company’s key new heart drug Multaq continued to grow steadily, up 89.7% to 68 million euros, and top seller Lantus insulin grew by a healthy 14.5 % to 969 million euros.
The strongest growth was seen from Sanofi’s colon cancer drug Eloxatin, up 194.7% to 248 million euro for the second quarter.
Chief executive, Christopher Viehbacher said, “As expected, the second quarter is the most challenging this year, given the level of generic competition.
“Against this, growth platforms continue to perform well and strong progress has been achieved in the integration of Genzyme and [veterinary medicines firm] Merial.”
Ben Adams
Related Content
Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent receives CHMP recommendation for chronic spontaneous urticaria
Sanofi and Regeneron have received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee …
Sanofi’s treatment granted orphan designation for rare chronic inflammatory condition
The European Medicines Agency has granted orphan designation to Sanofi’s investigational Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) …
Sanofi completes acquisition of Vigil Neuroscience to early neurology pipeline
Sanofi has announced that it has finalised its acquisition of Vigil Neuroscience, a US-based biotechnology …
