Sanofi, a French pharma giant, has posted satisfactory performance during the third quarter ended September 2014 and its net profit increased by 9.3 per cent to € 2,716 million from €2,484 million in the corresponding period of last year. Its net sales grew by 4.1 per cent to €8,781 million from €8,432 million. EPS improved to €1.47 from €1.36 in the last period. Its R&D expenditure declined by 3 per cent to €1,146 million reflecting lower spend on oncology.

Christopher A Viehbacher, CEO, said, “We are pleased with our performance in the third quarter. We achieved solid business EPS growth driven by continued strong contribution from our growth platforms, allowing us to confirm 2014 outlook. Growth platforms reached over 78 per cent of sales and grew 10 per cent. We have recently seen a more challenging US diabetes price environment which will impact our diabetes sales throughout 2015, while growth platforms globally are expected to continue to show solid growth. At the same time, our pipeline delivered strong results, with the release of exciting phase III data for alirocumab and our Dengue vaccine, the entry of dupilumab in phase III as well as the FDA approval of Cerdelga and the licensing of Afrezza.”

In the third quarter, sales of the Group's growth platforms increased by 10 per cent to €6,862 million, driven by the performance of Genzyme (up by 24.6 per cent), vaccines up by 11.2 per cent to €1,451 million, animal health up by 12.7 per cent to €515 million and other innovative products up by 18 per cent to €227 million. The growth platforms accounted for 78.1 per cent of total consolidated sales in the third quarter.  Its sales in US increased by 7.2 per cent to €3,208 million, followed by emerging markets 7.6 per cent to €2,776 million and Western Europe by 3.1 per cent to €2,003 million.  

Its pharmaceutical segment grew by 3.4 per cent to €6,815 million due to growth in emerging markets.  The sales of the diabetes division reached at €5,249 million. Lantus sales increased by 8.1 per cent to €1,567 million. Lantus sales in US increased by 12.5 per cent to €1,042 million and that in emerging markets moved up by 19.7 per cent to €232 million. Though sales of Amaryl declined by 2.2 per cent, its sales of Apidra increased by 21.9 per cent to €88 million. Sales of Plavix and Lovenox improved by 9 per cent and 7.2 per cent to €450 million and €426 million respectively.

For the first nine months ended September 2014, Sanofi's net sales increased only by 0.8 per cent to €24,698 million from €24,494 million in the corresponding period of last year and its net profit improved by 2.6 per cent to €7,006 million from €6,829 million. Pharmaceutical sales were almost stagnant at €20,332 million. Its vaccines sales improved marginally by 1.5 per cent to €2,797 million from €2,757 million.