Sanofi sales up by 6% in second quarter

Hannah Blake

pharmaphorum

While AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline have announced their decreasing sales profits for the second quarter, Sanofi has announced it has generated net sales of EU €8.870 million, which means an increase of 6%.

Sales in pharmaceuticals, however, have decreased by 0.4%, largely due to the loss in exclusivity in the US of some of Sanofi’s key brands, including Plavix (clopidogrel bisulfate) and Avapro (irbesartan).

Second-quarter Consumer Health Care (CHC) sales increased by 11.3%, to EU €738 million, reflecting the performance in emerging markets, where the sales increased by 9.8%, due to double digit growth in Essentiale®, Lactacyd®, Enterogermina®, Maalox®, NoSpa® and Haowawa®.

“This quarter, we faced the anticipated loss of exclusivity of Plavix® and Avapro® in the U.S. The strategy initiated at the end of 2008 focusing on the development of our growth platforms, coupled with continuous tight cost control and value-creating acquisitions allowed Sanofi to limit the impact on business EPS. In addition, we made progress in advancing our pipeline with the submission of LemtradaTM (alemtuzumab) to the U.S. and EU regulatory agencies as well as the recent initiation of a comprehensive Phase III program for an Anti-PCSK-9 monoclonal antibody.”

Christopher A. Viehbacher, Chief Executive Officer, Sanofi, comments on the results.

Sanofi’s performance in the first half of 2012 is in line with the full year guidance, which was announced on February 8th, 2012.