Sanofi maintains growth in 2012 despite patent expirations

Sanofi has expressed satisfaction with its business performance for the 2012 full-year period, during which it generated an annual sales total of 34.95 billion euros (29.79 billion pounds).

This represented a year-on-year increase of 0.5 percent, with growth being achieved despite the loss of patent protection of several key legacy products in the US, leading to a net sales loss of 1.35 billion compared to 2011.

Sanofi was able to mitigate this impact by enhancing the performance of its diabetes portfolio and its emerging market, consumer health and vaccines divisions, while revenues from its subsidiaries Genzyme and Merial also rose.

Moreover, nine significant regulatory approvals were achieved and six new files with regulatory agencies were submitted in 2012, including positive decisions on Lyzumia and Zaltrap earlier this month, thus further strengthening Sanofi's future prospects.

Christopher Viehbacher, chief executive officer of Sanofi, said: "Despite the effect of the patent cliff, Sanofi was able to grow sales and mitigate the impact on business earnings per share … We are on track to meet our 2012-2015 objectives for sustainable growth."