Sanofi-aventis, the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world, has generated net sales of Euro 7,025 million during the third quarter ended September 2007 as against Euro 6,901 million in the same period of last year. Its net income moved up by 9.1 per cent to Euro 1853 million from Euro 1699 million. With improvement in quarterly profit, its earning per share has gone up to Euro 1.37 from Euro 1.26 in the last period.

The pharmaceutical sales declined by 0.3 per cent to Euro 6,082 million. Net sales of the top 15 products were up 0.4 per cent at Euro 4,120 million, representing 67.7 per cent of pharmaceutical net sales against 67.3 per cent for the comparable period of 2006. Net sales of Lovenox, the leading low molecular weight heparin on the market, rose by 12.6 per cent in the quarter to Euro 633 million. Similarly, Lantus, the world's leading insulin band, continues to record excellent performance, with net sales up 34.6 per cent in the US, 21.2 per cent in Europe and 41.7 per cent in the rest of the world. The sales of other important products like Taxotere, Ambien CR and Eloxatin also improved during the quarter under review.

In the US, Plavix recovered its market standing in the third quarter having been affected since August 8, 2006 by the launch of generic version. Sales of the product reached $ 1,083 million from $ 477 million in the last period. In Europe, third-quarter net sales of Plavix were 6.6 per cent higher at Euro 450 million, though sales are still affected by parallel imports in Germany.

The consolidated net sales for Human Vaccines business went up by 49.2 per cent at Euro 943 million. The period was boosted by earlier shipments of influenza vaccines than in 2006, when a substantial proportion of shipment were postponed to the final quarter. As a result, net sales of influenza vaccines rose by 117.3 per cent in the quarter to Euro 365 million.

The sales in Europe were under pressure due to decline in net sales in France and Germany during the third quarter. The net sales in Europe reached at Euro 2,978 million and that in US went up by 6.1 per cent to 2,449 million.

Net sales for the nine months improved by 4.5 per cent to Euro 21,141 million from Euro 21,017 million in the same period of last year. Its net income declined by 0.3 per cent to Euro 5,648 million from Euro 5,663 million.