Sanofi-aventis reported that profit rose 6 percent during the third quarter to 1.4 billion euros ($2.1 billion) compared with the same time last year, boosted by higher revenue from Lantus and Lovenox.

 The company lifted its adjusted earnings-per-share guidance from an earlier forecast of 10 percent growth, to around 11 percent, citing 500

million euros ($742 million) in expected sales of influenza A (H1N1) vaccines in the fourth quarter.

In other financial results, quarterly sales for Lantus gained 22 percent from the year-ago period to 778 million euros ($1.2 billion), while Lovenox revenue climbed 14 percent to 747 million euros ($1.1 billion). Eloxatin sales plummeted 44 percent to 193 million euros ($285 million) due to generic competition in both the US and Europe.

 

Revenue for Plavix, which is expected to be affected in the fourth quarter by recently approved generic versions in Europe, increased 4 percent to 664 million euros ($980 million) for the three-month period. Overall revenue grew 8 percent to 7.4 billion euros ($11 billion), in line with analysts’ estimates.

 

Regarding vaccines, sanofi-aventis reported that quarterly sales rose nearly 5 percent to 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion), as a result of increased revenue for Pentacel, Pentaxim and Menactra. The company said that net sales of influenza vaccines fell 3 percent to 378 million euros ($558 million) in the quarter, which included 78 million euros ($116 million) from the first shipments of influenza A (H1N1) vaccine to the US.
Viehbacher remarked that the drugmaker,

 which has acquired several companies this year, will continue to look for similar deals, although a major acquisition of 15 billion euros ($22 billion) or more "is not on the radar screen."

 

Commenting on the news, Jerome Forneris of Banque Martin Maurel said “we are slowly starting to see the impact of generics but it was another good quarter for sanofi-aventis and Viehbacher is taking all the right steps to counter this problem.”