Sanofi Exceeds Billing Forecasts on Early Vaccine Sales

French drugmaker Sanofi on Friday posted stronger-than-expected profit growth in the third quarter, boosted by a better-than-expected start to the vaccine season. Quarterly operating income, excluding extraordinary items, increased 14.4% to €4.6 billion, higher than analysts’ average estimate of €4 billion in a survey posted on the company’s website.

Currency-adjusted vaccine sales increased 25.5% to €3.8 billion in the quarter, above the analyst consensus of 3.2 billion. Sanofi is to sell a 50% stake in its consumer unit, worth a total of €16 billion, to promote clinical trials of next-generation drugs.

CEO Paul Hudson’s spending plans initially caused the stock market to plummet a year ago, but stocks have since recovered.

The company, which is one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world in terms of sales, that his quarterly profits were boosted by previous flu vaccinations and Beyfortus ordersnew treatment to protect newborns from common respiratory virus. Without those early shipments, the company would have seen a “very attractive” quarterly growth rate of around 11%, Chief Financial Officer François-Xavier Roger said at a press conference.

Sanofi negotiates with Clayton Dubilier & Rice about selling part of its interest in Opella

“Overall, with the strong pipeline of products outperforming 15% in business earnings per share, largely driven by revenue, we expect Sanofi shares to outperform better than today’s 3-5%,” JP Morgan analysts said in an equity research note.

Quarterly revenue from the best-selling anti-inflammatory vaccine, Dupixent, increased by 23.8% adjusted by currency to 3,480 million eurosslightly higher than expected. However, further growth is expected as it recently received approval to treat a common lung disease.

Earlier this week, Sanofi announced it was in exclusive talks to sell a majority stake in its Opella consumer health business to US investor Clayton Dubilier & Rice, as part of a business move to ship non-prescription drug units.

The French drugmaker said at the time that 2024 earnings per share in its core business without Opella would grow by at least a low single-digit percentage when adjusted for currency movements, and it would see​​​​ strong rebound in 2025.