Sanofi raises profit forecast after second quarter

PARIS, July 29 (Reuters) – Sanofi (SASY.PA) raised its 2021 profit forecast on Thursday after its vaccines and treatment for Dupixent eczema helped it beat second-quarter earnings expectations .

The French drug maker said it is now aiming for earnings per share growth of around 12% at constant exchange rates this year, compared to “single-digit” percentage growth previously.

Sanofi, which shocked investors last year with the delay of a COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), reiterated its confidence in the shot, which hopes to gain regulatory approval by the end of the year.

The European medicines regulator said last week it had started a real-time review of the vaccine. Read more

Sales of Dupixent, which is sold to patients with eczema but also prescribed for other conditions such as asthma, jumped 57% to 1.24 billion euros ($ 1.47 billion).

The turnover of the vaccines unit was up 16.2% to 1 billion euros, helped by a stronger demand for booster and meningitis vaccines.

Overall, Sanofi’s sales rose 12.4% in the second quarter to € 8.74 billion, while operating net income – a figure the company uses as a baseline measure to measure profits – increased 16.8% to 1.73 million euros.

Analysts polled by Refinitiv on average expected a turnover of 8.5 billion euros and a net profit of 1 billion euros.

($ 1 = € 0.8436)

Reporting by Matthias Blamont Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Mark Potter

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