Health Care Drives 3rd Qtr For Rhone-Poulenc

Net income for French chemical and pharmaceutical company Rhone-Poulenc, which holds a 68% stake in R-PR, amounted to 756 million French francs ($148.5 million), up 13%. EPS in the third quarter were 2.33 francs, up 9.9%.

Net sales grew 4.7% to 20.5 billion francs. The company said that results linked to human and animal health increased 26.7%, despite the impact of the recall of the Centeon products. The rise was brought about by increased sales of new R-PR products Taxotere, Lovenox and Granocyte (lenograstim), vaccines for hepatitis A and B from the Pasteur Merieux Connaught business and synergies resulting from the integration of Fisons.

R-P recorded a net expense of 81 million francs linked to Centeon's product recall. Without this, net income would have been 25% higher than in the year-earlier period. The firm indicated that further impact will come in the fourth quarter. For the year as a whole, the impact of the products' recall is expected to be between 6% and 7%, or 100-200 million francs.