Sanofi-Aventis - Big Pharma's Q2 2010 Earnings Report

July 29, 2010 — 9:49am ET

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FiercePharma says: Sanofi reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings. It hiked its 2010 forecast for the third time and announced a $2 billion share-buyback program. The company raised its annual earnings forecast to $6.35 to $6.65 per share, up from $6.05 to $6.35. However, CEO David Brennan warned that the second half of the year won't be as rosy as the first, thanks in part to generic competition for AZ's cancer drug Arimidex. Plus, the second half of 2010 will be compared with the second half of 2009, which got a boost from pandemic flu sales.

Highlights

Strong growth was achieved in Emerging Markets3 (+12.8%), driven by BRIC-M (+30.6%)
Diabetes division sales were up 10.6%, driven by Lantus® and Apidra®
Vaccines sales reached €748 million, a decrease of 1.3%
Double digit increase for CHC (+15.7% organic growth and +65.4% including acquisitions)
Multaq® sales reached €39 million in Q2
Overall sales were resilient (-1.2% or +4.6% on a reported basis), despite the impact of generic competition for Eloxatin® and Allegra® D-12 in the U.S. and Plavix® in Europe
Cost savings led to a decrease in R&D and SG&A expenses at CER and are expected to reach more than €1bn by 2010 at CER compared with 2008 cost base
Business EPS1 grew 8.0% in Q2 2010 on a reported basis and increased 4.5% at CER

See Sanofi's current stock quote from CNN Money

Sanofi's website: http://www.sanofi-aventis.us/
Full release: Sanofi earnings