Sanofi-aventis' second-quarter profit surged 61 percent to 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion), compared with the year-ago period, the company announced Thursday, driven by increased sales of key products and favourable currency effects.

CEO Chris Viehbacher said he was "pleased with the…performance in an environment impacted by the US healthcare reform, price cuts in Europe and continued competition from generics.

" However he warned that the recent approval of a generic version of Lovenox in the US would lead to "another re-evaluation" of its sales force in the country.

Following the announcement about generic Lovenox, sanofi-aventis said it would reduce its earnings for 2010, with the company indicating it now sees earnings per share compared to 2009 stable, or declining by as much as 4 percent, after a previous estimate of an increase of 2 percent to 5 percent.

The company recorded 926 million euros ($1.2 billion) in Lantus quarterly sales, up 11 percent compared to the same period in 2009.

Revenue from Lovenox also increased, climbing nearly 6 percent to 866 million euros ($1.1 billion), and sales of Taxotere fell nearly 3 percent to 598 million euros ($782 million).

Sales of Plavix and Eloxatin continued to be affected by generic competition, falling 27 percent to 538 million euros ($704 million) and 76 percent to 94 million euros ($123 million), respectively.

Vaccine sales for the three-month period fell just over 1 percent to 748 million euros ($979 million).

Overall second-quarter revenue rose 5 percent to 7.8 billion euros ($10.2 billion), exceeding analyst estimates of 7.5 billion euros ($9.8 billion), aided by a 13-percent growth in sales in emerging markets to 2.3 billion euros ($3 billion).

Responding to reports linking the French drugmaker with a possible $18.7-billion bid for Genzyme, Viehbacher said the company "can't comment on specific speculation." He noted that sanofi-aventis remains "opportunistic" about acquisitions, and continues to focus on takeovers ranging in value from $5 billion to $20 billion.

Commenting on the strategy, Jerome Forneris of Banque Martin Maurel said that as the drugmaker "is still facing a patent cliff…accelerating acquisitions to help solve this problem is the right way to go."