Sanofi aventis, the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world, has suffered setback during the first half ended June 2007 mainly due to adverse exchange rates, presence of generic of clopidogrel bisulfate in US and the discontinuation of royalty income on fipronil. The company's net earnings declined by 4.3 per cent to Euro 3,795 million from Euro 3,964 million in the corresponding period of last year. The net sales remained stagnant at Euro 14,116 million. The lower profit put pressure on EPS, which worked out to Euro 2.81 as against Euro 2.95. The R&D expenditure has increased by 1.8 per cent to Euro 2,182 million.

The net sales of pharmaceutical business during the first half amounted to Euro 12,930 million, a rise of 3.7 per cent. The net sales of top 15 products advanced by 6.4 per cent to Euro 8,777 and represents 67.9 per cent of pharmaceuticals net sales compared with 66.2 per cent for the comparable period of 2006. The sales of other product felled by 1.6 per cent to Euro 4,153 million, versus Euro 4,219 million in the last period.

Net sales of Lovenox, the leading low molecular weight heparin on the market, rose by 15.5 per cent in the second quarter to Euro 671 million. The sales of Ambien declined sharply on account of expiry of the patent to Euro 67 million from Euro 308 million in the second quarter.

Plavix posted sales of $1,019 million during the second quarter in US, up by 2.6 per cent reflecting the disappearance of the generic version from the market at the end of the quarter. In Europe, net sales of Plavix were up by 4.1 per cent to Euro 452 million, still affected by parallel imports in Germany.

The consolidated net sales of Human vaccines business increased by 15.4 per cent to Euro 1,186 million. Construction of a new influenza vaccine manufacturing facility in the US was completed in July. This facility is due to be operational by late 2008 or early 2009.