Sanofi has registered small growth in net sales during the second quarter ended June 2014 of 0.9 per cent to €8,075 million as against €8,003 million in the corresponding period of last year as exchange rate movements has a negative effect. However, its net income went up by 73.4 per cent to €777 million from €448 million due to lower other operating expenses as well as restructuring costs. R&D expenditure remained almost same at €1,188 million during the quarter under review.
The pharmaceutical sales increased by 7.2 per cent on constant exchange basis (CER) to €6,820 million on account of higher sales in US and emerging markets. The sales of diabetes improved by 16.2 per cent to €1,788 million driven by Lantus sales of €1,557 million. Lantus sales in US increased by 20.3 per cent to €1,035 million and Lantus SoloSTAR represented 61.3 per cent of total Lantus sales. The company's generic sales touched to €466 million despite decrease in sales in Europe by 5.6 per cent and in US 24.5 per cent due to lower sales of the authorized generics of Lovenox. In Emerging market, sales of generics reached at €284 million.
The sales of Plavix declined by 8.3 per cent to €425 million due to lower sales in Japan and that of Aprovel moved down by 15.5 per cent to €193 million. However, sales of Lovenox improved slightly by 0.5 per cent to €421 million on account of higher sales in emerging markets. The sales of Genzyme division improved by 29.1 per cent on CER basis to €643 million with higher sales of Aubagio and Fabrazyme. The sales of Vaccines division remained almost same at €718 million. The sales of polio/pertussis/hib vaccines improved by 2 per cent to €284 million.
The emerging market sales moved up 16.5 per cent to €2,855 million and that in US improved by 9.4 per cent to €2,569 million. However, its sales in Western Europe declined by 2.8 per cent to €1,908 million and that in the ROW declined by 11.2 per cent to €743 million.
Chrisitopher A Viehbacher, CEO, said, “Our solid second quarter performance reflects consistent execution of our growth strategy and allows us to slightly adjust upwards our 2014 financial guidance. This quarter, growth platforms represented more than 75 per cent of our sales. Based on the solid momentum in our late stage pipeline, we are actively preparing for a wave of new product launches that will further redefine Sanofi as a biopharmaceutical leader.”
At the end of July 2014, the R&D pipeline contained 46 projects (excluding Life Cycle Management) and vaccine candidates in clinical development of which 12 are in phase III or have been submitted to the health authorities for approval.
For the first half ended June 2014, Sanofi's net sales declined by 0.9 per cent to €15,917 million from €16,062 million in the corresponding period of last year. However, its net income improved by 29.5 per cent to €1,861 million from €1,437 million. EPS worked out €1.41 as against €1.09 in the last period. Its R&D expenditure for the first half reached at €2,327 million from €2,342 million in the same period of last year. Its pharmaceutical sales remained stagnant at €13,517 million and Vaccines sales declined by 7.6 per cent to €1,346 million from €1,457 million.