Sanofi reported lower second quarter sales for its strategic diabetes division on Thursday, hurt by continued pricing pressure in the United States, but it's biotech arm Genzyme recorded another quarter of double-digit growth, enabling the French drugmaker to beat forecasts overall.Forced to agree to increased rebates to maintain market share of Lantus, a blockbuster insulin drug whose patent expires this year in the U.S, Sanofi said sales in its diabetes branch declined 3.8 percent at constant currency rates to around 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion).Total sales of Toujeo, a next-generation basal insulin launched at the end of March in the U.S, amounted to 13 million euros in the second quarter and to 20 million euros in the first half. Tim Anderson, an analyst with Bernstein who rates Sanofi as "outperform", described the Toujeo figures as "underwhelming". Sanofi has several new diabetes product launches underway, and it announced positive data from new treatment LixiLan on Wednesday.
Sanofi is a healthcare company focused on patient needs and engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of healthcare products. Shares of SNY fell by 2.17% or $-1.17/share to $52.64. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $43.57 and as high as $57.42. On average, 1680190 shares of SNY exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1293027.
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