An increase in sales at the ‘new Genzyme’ helped Sanofi’s business EPS grow by 7.2% as revenue topped €8.5bn in the first three months of 2012.

Sales of growth platforms, which include Genzyme, were €5.38bn and accounted for 63.2% of total sales, up from 59.2% in Q1 2011, despite global generic competition on Plavix and Aprovel.

Jérôme Contamine, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer discusses the Q1 results.

An increase in sales at the ‘new Genzyme’ helped Sanofi’s business EPS grow by 7.2% as revenue topped €8.5bn in the first three months of 2012.

Sales of growth platforms, which include Genzyme, were €5.38bn and accounted for 63.2% of total sales, up from 59.2% in Q1 2011, despite global generic competition on Plavix and Aprovel.

Christopher Viehbacher, Sanofi CEO, said the “strong performance” in the first quarter was “driven by Genzyme, our growth platforms, and cost savings”.

However, Sanofi still expects profits to be down by around 12% to 15% on last year’s figures as a result of generic exposure of major brands.

Overall sales were up 7% compared to the same period last year after revenue in emerging markets increased by nearly a tenth (9.9%), and its pharmaceuticals division was boosted by increased sales in its diabetes and oncology businesses.

First quarter sales in pharmaceuticals reached €7.3bn, an increase of 8.8%, driven by the performance of diabetes drug Lantus which saw sales rise 17.2% to €1.1bn. But generic competition on Plavix, Lovenox and Taxotere hit sales, despite increased demand for Apidra, Eloxatin and Jevtana.

The ‘new Genzyme’ recorded sales of €400m in Q1 – up by 13.7%. Sales of Fabrazyme were up by half to €47m, with Cerezyme up by 5.8% to €149m and sales of Myozyme/Lumizyme also increasing by 17% to €112m.

Sanofi’s own generics business generated an increase of sales after the recent launch of the authorised generic Lovenox saw revenue grow by 6.5% to €439m.

Vaccine sales were down slightly (0.2%) to €617m after the delayed timing of supply of flu vaccines in the Southern Hemisphere. However, the news was better for Sanofi’s consumer health division as it achieved record sales of €805m.