Sanofi aventis has posted net profit growth of 6.8 per cent during the year ended December 2010 to Euro 9,215 million from Euro 8,629 million in the previous year. With improvement in profits, its earnings per share moved up to Euro 7.6 from Euro 6.61. The company's net sales increased by 3.7 per cent to Euro 30,384 million from 29,306 million in the preceding year. Its other income improve by 14.4 per cent to Euro 1,651 million from Euro 1,443 million.

The pharmaceutical sales increased by 2.9 per cent to Euro 26,576 million from Euro 25,823 million and that of vaccines increased by 9.3 per cent to Euro 3,808 million from Euro 3483 million in the previous year. The sales of Lanus improved by 9.1 per cent to Euro 3,510 million. However, the sales of Lovenox declined by 10.5 per cent to Euro 2,806 million and that of Plavix also nosedived sharply by 24.6 per cent to Euro 2,083 million. The sales of Stilnox/Ambien/Ambien CR/Myslee also drop by 10.9 per cent to Euro 819 million. The sales of consumer health care improved by 45.7 per cent to Euro 2,217 million and sales of generics increased by 41.5 per cent to Euro 1, 534 million.

The company's sales in Europe declined by 8.5 per cent to Euro 8,715 million and same in US declined by 7.5 per cent to Euro 7,010 million. However, Its sales in emerging market went up by 11.9 per cent to Euro 7,689 million and that in Rest of the World moved up by 6.9 per cent to Euro 3,162 million.

The company has cut down its R&D expenditure by almost 4 per cent to Euro 4,401 million from Euro 4,583 million in the previous year. Its cost of sales increased by 10.6 per cent to Euro 8,717 million and  selling and general expenses 3.3 per cent to Euro 7,567 million. The company's operating income declined by 6.4 per cent to Euro 5,961 million from Euro 6,366 million.

Christopher A. Viehbacher, CEO, said “2010 was the first year in which the patent cliff really became visible with generic competition for several of our products, notably Lovenox in the US. However, we have delivered another year of EPS growth due to the excellent performance of our growth platforms, which now account of 54 per cent of sales, and tight cost control. In 2010, these growth platforms accounted for more than Euro 16 billion in sales, an increased of 12.5 per cent, constituting a solid basis for the mid and long term development of our company.”