Genzyme foresees future growth following difficult quarter

Genzyme has expressed optimism that its business prospects are to improve in the second half of 2010 following a “difficult” second quarter.

According to the firm’s fiscal report, many of Genzyme’s products saw strong year-on-year growth in the last quarter, with sales of the biosurgery offering Synvisc expanding by 31 per cent compared to Q2 2009.

However, shipment limitations of key products such as Cerezyme and Fabrazyme meant the firm was unable to meet demand, leading to overall revenue decreasing to $1.1 billion (720.1 million pounds), down from $1.2 billion last year

As a result, the company has moved to improve and increase manufacturing capacity of these products, resulting in a “promising” outlook for the remainder of 2010.

Henri Termeer, Genzyme’s chairman and chief executive officer, said: “We expect that increasing sales of these products combined with reductions in our operating costs will produce an increase in earnings during the second half of the year.”

Last month, Genzyme announced the appointment of Dennis Fenton, Steven Burakoff, and Eric Ende as the newest members of its board of directors.