Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical major, has registered strong growth in net income during the fourth quarter ended December 2013 despite challenging environment. Its net profit on reported basis went up sharply to €1,056 million from €388 million in the corresponding quarter of last year due to lower R&D expenditure and higher other operating income. However, its gross profit declined by 2.6 per cent to €5,643 million from €5,795 million.

Its net sales declined marginally by 0.8 per cent on reported basis to €8,457 million from €8,526 million due to adverse exchange rates which has negative impact of 7.3 per cent points. The earnings per share worked out to €0.80 as against €0.29 in the last period. On constant exchange rate (CER) basis, its sales registered a growth of 6.5 per cent and net income growth of 30.5 per cent.

The pharmaceuticals business improved by 8.4 per cent to €7,054 million driven by diabetes, Genzyme and generics. The diabetes division recorded double-digit growth of 19 per cent to €1,735 million. Lantus sales moved up 19.9 per cent to €1,512 million on account of higher sales in the US and emerging markets. In the US, Lantus SoloSTAR sales represented 58 per cent of total Lantus sales in the quarter. Lantus sales in Western Europe were €204 million, an increase of 4 per cent. The sales of Genzyme business increased by 31.4 per cent to €595 million. Sales of Plavix improved by 12.5 per cent to €491 million driven by China and Japan, and that of Lovenox moved up by 4.1 per cent to €438 million. Its sales of generics increased by 12 per cent to €478 million. Similarly, its vaccines sales remained flat at €959 million during the quarter under review.

Christopher A Viehbacher, CEO, said, “Sanofi’s growth profile emerged in Q4 2013 with total sales growing 6.5 per cent at CER and growth platforms  which represented 72.9 per cent of sales, increasing 10 per cent at CER. Furthermore, new product launches are underway or imminent in most of Sanofi’s core businesses and several high potential R&D projects progressed in 2013, including alirocumab, sarilumab and U300.”

For the full year ended December 2013, Sanofi's net sales on reported basis declined by 5.7 per cent to €32,951 million (US$ 45,360 million) from €34,947 million in the previous year mainly due to unfavourable exchange rates. Its net income, however, declined sharply by 23.4 per cent to €3,875 million from €5,058 million. Earnings per share worked out to €2.81 as against €3.71. The company declared equity dividend of €2.80 per share for the year 2013.

The sales of its growth platform, which includes diabetes, vaccines, consumer healthcare, Genzyme, animal health and other innovative products, registered sales growth, on constant exchange rates basis, of 6.6 per cent during the year 2013 to €23,905 million. Diabetes sales improved by 18.7 per cent to €6,568 million and that of Genzyme moved up by 25.9 per cent to €2,142 million. The sales of vaccines were under pressure and declined by 0.1 per cent to €3,716 million. The worldwide sales of Lantus increased by 20 per cent to €5,715 million. Similarly, sales of Plavix increased by 1.1 per cent to €1,857 million. However, sales of Lovenox and Aprovel/Avapro declined sharply by 7.2 per cent and 20.9 per cent to €1,703 million and €882 million respectively.

The company's sales in US declined by 0.7 per cent to €10,433 million and that in Europe by 5.6 per cent to €7,831 million. Its sales in emerging markets increased by 4.4 per cent to €10,957 million. Sales in Asia went up by 10.1 per cent to €3,040 million. Its sales in Latin America, however, declined marginally by 1.5 per cent to €3,013 million.

The company expects to generate EPS growth between 4 per cent and 7 per cent at CER due to continued performance of growth platforms, investments in new product launches and in late-stage pipeline.