Sanofi has reported net profit growth of 6.2 per cent during the first quarter ended March 2016 to €1,087 million from €1,023 million in the similar period of last year. Its net sales, however, declined by 3.3 per cent to €7,783 million from €8,052 million due to exchange rate movements. R&D expenditure increased to €1,235 million from €1,159 million. With higher restructuring cost of €500 million as against €353 million in the last period, operating profit declined by 11.2 per cent to €1,154 million from €1,300 million. EPS improved to €0.84 from €0.78 in the last period.

The sales of Sanofi Genzyme (specialty care) increased by 20.5 per cent to €1,169 and that of Sanofi Pasteur (vaccines) moved up by 8.2 per cent to €625 million. However, the sales of diabetes and cardiovascular declined by 5.8 per cent to €1,499 million. Similarly the sales of general medicines & emerging markets declined by 4.3 per cent to €4,490 million.

The overall sales of pharmaceuticals declined by 1.4 per cent to €7,158 million impacted by a decrease in diabetes and established Rx products sales. The sales of rare diseases increased by 8.5 per cent to €646 million and that of oncology increased marginally by 1.4 per cent to €358 million. In diabetes segment, the sales of Lantus declined by 11 per cent to €1,395 million. Similarly established Rx products sales declined by 8.2 per cent as sales of Plavix declined by 18.2 per cent to €388 million and that of Lovenox by 3.9 per cent to €404 million.   

The sales in US improved by 1.5 per cent to €2,966 million and that in emerging market moved up by 4.2 per cent to €2,373 million. Its sales in Japan declined by 25.3 per cent to €447 million. Europe sales increased by 1.7 per cent to €2,372 million.

Olivier Brandicourt, CEO, said, “I am pleased with the solid performance of the Group in the first quarter driven by Sanofi Genzyme, Sanofi Pasteur and Merial as well as our growth in Emerging markets.  At the same time, we have made significant progress wit two major late-stage pipeline assets, dupilumab and sarilumab, highlighting the potential of our emerging immunology franchise. As we enter the second quarter, we remain focused on the execution of our strategic priorities and confirm our financial outlook of broadly stable business EPS at CER for the full year.”

At the end of April 2016, the R&D pipeline contained 46 pharmaceutical new molecular entities and vaccine candidates in clinical development of which 15 are in phase III or have been submitted to the regulatory authorities for approval.