Good Profits Performance Expected At Sanofi

Group sales in the first six months of 1995 at Sanofi are expected to rise around 5% and net profits should increase 15%-20% to between 530 million French francs and 550 million francs ($113.3 million), according to Mark Tracey and Paul Krikler at Goldman Sachs International.

They say that the key factors driving growth at Sanofi are: strong domestic pharmaceutical performance, expected to be 9%-10%; significant cost savings following the Sterling integration; absence of some loss-making perfume brands, which have been divested; strong performances from Yves Saint Laurent and Yves Rocher; and improving results from the group's diagnostics business.

Focus On Skelid The analysts suggest that Sanofi has "one of the most promising" medium-term pharmaceutical pipelines in the industry, and they are closely monitoring the developments in the USA Merck's Fosamax (alendronate; see page 18), a treatment for osteoporosis. Sanofi has a similar product, Skelid (tiludronate) in Phase III of development. A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee has unanimously recommended approval of Fosamax for use in the treatment of osteoporosis.