Septemper 1, 2005

French drugmaker Sanofi's Q2 profits lower on merger costs

French drugmaker Sanofi's Q2 net profits this year registered EUR556 million, a fall of 55 percent year-on-year, after considering merger costs the previous year.

Sanofi-Synthelabo SA had taken over Aventis SA in late 2004 to form the present company.

The company said its Q2 net profit would have reached EUR1.23 billion if merger costs and income from units not included in the tie-up were excluded.

Chief Executive Jean-Francois Dehecq, said he now expected savings from the merger of EUR1.2 billion this year, up from a previous target of EUR960 million.

Meanwhile, second quarter sales this year rose 6.5 percent to EUR6.69 billion. Sanofi also reported an adjusted profit of EUR1.55 billion during that quarter, which excluded EUR768 million of deferred taxes and EUR229 million for restructuring costs.

Sanofi may also benefit from increased government spending on treatments for bird flu. The US National Institutes of Health said preliminary human tests in early August this year, of a Sanofi experimental vaccine, found it to be effective against the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.