Sanofi has at least three things to thank for a strong three months and better outlook for 2022: Flu vaccines, Dupixent and a weak euro.
Dupixent remained the main growth driver for Sanofi. The star inflammatory disease antibody drug contributed €2.3 billion ($2.3 billion) in total sales in a 44.5% increase at constant currencies. The performace topped Wall Street's expectations by 7%, according to SVB Securities.
“We don’t get a ton of credit for trying to post a big number, but we’ve been very disciplined about how we operate,” Hudson said. “It is really truly incredible the number of subscribers.”
The company knows that “there will be competition,” Hudson added, but thanks to all of Dupixent’s indications, “nobody competes with us across all of the diseases.”
Increased overall interest in biologics as well as new indications helped grow Dupixent's total prescriptions by 38% year-over-year with new-to-brand prescriptions growing by 49%, according to Sanofi.
Sanofi has maintained its peak sales target for Dupixent of at least €13 billion. Hudson said Sanofi hopes the drug will exceed €10 billion euros next year.
The next biggest sector was not surprisingly vaccines, growing 23.5% to €3.3 billion. Influenza vaccines alone increased 32.4% to €2 billion in the third quarter, driven by “manufacturing excellence” leading to earlier flu vaccine shipments than last year, Sanofi said.
The results of the quarter demonstrate that the company is “on the right path,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said in a written statement.
Next year will be a big year for Sanofi if all goes to plan. It’s racing against Pfizer, GSK and AstraZeneca to secure a first bite of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) market, and a recent positive opinion from European regulators on its RSV antibody, Beyfortus, gives the company a bit of an edge.
“Given its potential to prevent 80% of hospitalizations, we expect Beyfortus to become the best option in 2023 to achieve all infant protection against RSV,” said Hudson on the company’s third quarter earnings conference call.
Overall, Sanofi is sitting on a good position with total sales growing 9% at current exchange rates throughout the quarter to €12.5 billion.