Sometimes it's hard to predict how patients and doctors will react to medical news.
Sales of Merck's
sanofi-aventis'
In addition to managing the Lantus news quite well, Sanofi managed a pretty solid quarter in general. Sales were up 8%, helped slightly by a currency boost, but mostly because of strong showings from Lantus, Lovenox, and Plavix, which it sells with Bristol-Myers Squibb
Of those three, the one to worry about is Lovenox. The drug lost patent protection in the U.S. a while ago, after Teva Pharmaceutical
Assuming the FDA delay lasts through the fourth quarter, we should see another solid performance from Sanofi, thanks to revenue from the swine flu vaccine rolling in. The company is giving guidance for an 11% increase in adjusted earnings at constant currencies.
Longer-term, though, predicting Sanofi's future is about as hard as predicting patients' reactions to medical news.