PARIS (dpa-AFX) – Thanks to its blockbuster Dupixent, the pharmaceutical company Sanofi has grown significantly in the past year. In the final quarter of 2022, however, the important vaccination business collapsed surprisingly sharply. The new year threatens to be even more uncomfortable: in addition to competition from imitation products, the French are faced with high marketing costs for the launch of new medicines. The Management Board is therefore preparing for less earnings growth.
Investors on the stock exchange reacted disappointed before the weekend. The Sanofi share lost 2.7 percent and was listed at the end of the leading European index EuroStoxx 50 (EURO STOXX 50). At the bottom, it fell back to its lowest level since November.
Industry analyst Richard Vosser from the US bank JPMorgan noted several sticking points. On the one hand, he complained about the unexpectedly weak final quarter. The group missed sales expectations in the fourth quarter solely because of the vaccination business, which developed far worse than expected. However, Sanofi explained this gap in its announcement on Friday with a seasonal effect: Many customers had ordered early before the expected flu season, which is why vaccine sales were particularly strong in the third quarter.
But expert Vosser also came across the group outlook for 2023. This implies a reduction in market expectations by an estimated four percent. However, the decisive factor here is the stronger negative exchange rate effect assumed by the group, which many industry experts have not yet adequately taken into account in their estimates.
Sanofi will have to spend a lot of money this year marketing its hemophilia drug Altuviiio and Beyfortus against the RSV virus. These costs are likely to depress earnings. In addition, increasing competition from cheaper generics for the aging drug Aubagio against multiple sclerosis is looming in the USA from the spring.
The group management around company director Paul Hudson therefore expects to only be able to increase earnings per share (EPS) in the low single-digit percentage range in 2023, excluding special and exchange rate effects. In 2022, this key figure had grown significantly: Sanofi posted a currency-adjusted increase of over 17 percent. Nominally, the increase was even a good quarter due to the weak euro, as the group further announced in Paris. The pharmaceutical manufacturer thus surpassed its own targets somewhat.
Management raised the outlook twice during the year because business was better than initially thought. The group was able to rely in particular on its bestseller Dupixent. The drug, which is used to treat diseases such as asthma or neurodermatitis, brought in almost 8.3 billion euros – almost 44 percent more than a year earlier.
In 2023, sales with Dupixent are expected to increase to ten billion euros. In addition, important data from a study in which the drug is tested on the widespread chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD is due in the course of the year.
Group-wide, Sanofi’s revenue climbed by almost 14 percent to almost 43 billion euros last year. The bottom line is that profits in the reporting period climbed by eight percent to 6.7 billion euros.
2022 was an eventful year for the French: In May, Sanofi spun off the company Euroapi, which specializes in active pharmaceutical ingredients. A few months later, the French withdrew from the takeover talks for the Irish manufacturer Horizon Therapeutics, instead the US company Amgen came into play in December.
On the stock market, investors were also kept in suspense for months by concerns about high monetary claims in the legal dispute surrounding the stomach drug Zantac – after all, since a negative judicial decision in the USA at the end of the year, this point seems to have largely disappeared as a stress factor for the share. /tav/lew/mis
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