LONDON (Reuters) -Sanofi reported stronger than expected third-quarter profit on Friday, boosted by demand for blockbuster asthma drug Dupixent, even as the French drugmaker flagged lower vaccination rates partly due to a “negative buzz” around vaccines.
Sales of Sanofi’s flu and COVID-19 vaccines dropped 16.8%, hit by pricing pressure in Germany and lower vaccination rates in the early U.S. season. Rates declined globally, in part due to a post-COVID fatigue.
“There might be a little bit of negative feeling about vaccines overall,” Sanofi’s chief financial officer François-Xavier Roger said after the results. “A little bit of negative buzz around vaccines.”
In the U.S., health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has taken aim at vaccines, cutting funding for research and ousting the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which makes vaccine recommendations.
Roger said vaccines are key to prevent disease and as it was the beginning of flu season in the Northern Hemisphere it was difficult to predict future sales growth.
The company’s overall sales in the U.S. were up 11.1% at 6.84 billion euros, as other medicines offset vaccine weakness. Total global vaccines sales in the quarter were 3.36 billion euros ($3.92 billion), in line with analyst expectations.
Sanofi’s shares rose nearly 3% in early trade.
SANOFI IN ‘CONSTANT DISCUSSION’ WITH TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
CFO Roger said the company would “review the opportunity” to expand which medicines are sold directly to patients in the U.S., amid a concerted push by U.S. President Donald Trump to lower domestic drug prices.
