Sanofi (SNY)

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Sanofi's Q3 bombshell: Diabetes sales drop, and will keep dropping through 2018


Sanofi racked up big third-quarter gains in emerging markets, its Genzyme unit sales were up almost one-third, and vaccines and animal health delivered growth, too. Overall sales increased by 3.4% to €9.6 billion, lower than analysts expected, but only slightly. And earnings topped estimates by a couple cents per share. But what got most of the attention in the French drugmaker's Q3 release?

Its falling diabetes sales--and its expectation that they'll continue on that downward trajectory. Lower sales of Sanofi's longtime best-seller Lantus--in the U.S. because of higher-than-expected rebates, in Europe because of biosimilar competition--dragged the company's diabetes franchise down by 6.6%.