SANOFI, CIBA-GEIGY ON PARIBAS BUY LIST

The French Sanofi group and Swit-zerland's Ciba-Geigy are consider-ed to be "fundamental buy" stocks by Paribas Capital Market's London-based drug analyst Mark Tracey.

Following a conversation with Sanofi, Mr Tracey says it appears that the group has had a successful end to 1991. The US perfumes and beauty products division made a small profit this year, and the initial launch of Ticlid (ticlopidine) in the USA, with an ex-manufacturer selling price of $2.20 per day, compared with its earliest market, France, where the price of the drug is 7.6 francs ($1.47) per day, also helped. Ticlid could achieve sales of $340 million in the USA in 1995, he suggests.

The acquisition of a 40% stake in the Hungarian company Chinoin looks as if it has been rewarding, the analyst comments. In 1990, the company had net earnings of 60 million francs and in 1991, helped by a strong domestic performance and almost zero tax, earnings should be considerably higher, perhaps as much as 95 million francs ($18.3 million), he adds.