Sanofi 1st-qtr sales up 11% despite 6% drop in diabetes franchise

French pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) pleased investors with a strong set of financial results for the first quarter of 2017 today, sending its shares 2.2% higher to 87.87 euros by mid-morning.

Net sales for the quarter were 8.65 billion ($9.40 billion), up 11.1% on a reported basis and +8.6% at constant exchange rates (CER) reflecting the acquisition of Boehringer Ingelheim's consumer health care (CHC) business and full consolidation of Sanofi's European vaccine operations. At constant structure and CER, net sales were up 3.5%. Sales were well above a Bloomberg consensus estimate of 7.78 billion euros.

Net profit rose to 5.7 billion euros from 1.09 billion euros a year earlier, boosted by the sale of its animal health business to Boehringer. Business net income (adjusted income excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestments) increased 4.2% to 1.8 billion euros, lifted by Genzyme, Sanofi's biotech business. This figure beat analysts' expectations of 1.6 billion euros, according to a poll by data provider FactSet. Business earnings per share came in at 1.42 euros, an increase of 6%. Sanofi said it still expects business EPS to be stable or decline by up to 3% in full-year 2017 at constant exchange rates.