French drug major Sanofi reported Thursday weak profit in its first quarter, despite higher net sales. The company also maintained its fiscal 2024 outlook. Sanofi shares were gaining around 4 percent in Paris trading as well as in pre-market activity on the Nasdaq.

Paul Hudson, Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are off to an excellent start in 2024, delivering on our strategic priorities and a transformation of our portfolio of medicines and vaccines to become a development-driven, tech-powered biopharma company committed to serving patients and accelerating growth. Continued strong performance by Dupixent and our new launches drove sales growth of seven percent…. With the robust progress in our portfolio transformation, we reaffirm our financial guidance for 2024.”

For fiscal 2024, Sanofi continues to expect business earnings per share to remain roughly stable excluding the impact of an expected effective tax rate increase to 21 percent, and decrease low single-digit at CER including the higher expected tax rate.

The company is on target to deliver Dupixent sales of around 13 billion euros in 2024, after it gained 24.9 percent in its first quarter.

In its first quarter, net income attributable to equity holders, on IFRS basis, was 1.13 billion euros, down 43.2 percent from last year’s 2 billion euros.

Earnings per share declined 43.1 percent to 0.91 euro from 1.60 euros a year ago.

Business net income was 2.22 billion euros, compared 2.70 billion euros last year. Business earnings per share were 1.78 euros, compared to 2.16 euros last year.

IFRS net sales grew 2.4 percent to 10.46 billion euros from last year’s 10.22 billion euros. Sales growth was 6.7 percent at constant exchange rates, driven by launches.

In the quarter, Dupixent sales were up 24.9 percent from last year to 2.84 billion euros. Pharma launches climbed 90.5 percent to 606 million euros, led by Nexviazyme and ALTUVIIIO.

Vaccines sales grew 5.6 percent, boosted by Beyfortus, and Consumer Healthcare sales increased 9 percent, benefiting from the Qunol acquisition in Physical and Mental Wellness and strong Digestive Wellness performance.

In Paris, Sanofi shares were trading at 91.19 euros, up 4 percent. In pre-market activity on the Nasdaq, the shares were gaining around 4.7 percent to trade at $48.78.

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