PARIS: French pharmaceutical group Sanofi on Friday posted strong 2021 sales and expects another good run in 2022, as the popularity of its asthma therapy outweighs failures in developing a COVID vaccine.
While Sanofi has yet to produce a jab against COVID, its Dupixent drug, which also treats eczema, has been a huge success, reporting double-digit growth in sales of the drug.
The company reported total sales of 37.8 billion euros ($43.3 billion) in 2021, an increase of 4.8%, according to its annual income statement.
Sanofi's earnings per share (EPS) -- a measure of a company's profitability -- rose 12% better than expected.
The company said it expects "low double-digit" growth of its EPS in 2022. EPS is a firm's net profit divided by the outstanding shares.
Chief Executive Paul Hudson said, "Our outstanding financial performance validates our ability to increase profitability through an improved product mix, supported by expense management and the reinvestment of savings behind our growth drivers."
Sanofi, he said, is "on a trajectory to achieve our 2022 financial goals."
The company said it would increase the dividend to shareholders to EUR 3.33 per share, up from EUR 3.20 last year, for a total payout of EUR 4.1 billion.
Last year, Sanofi abandoned efforts to develop a COVID vaccine based on groundbreaking mRNA technology, which proved to be a huge success for its US rivals Moderna and Pfizer, which partnered with Germany's BioNTech.
The French firm is still working on a vaccine using a different method, but the results of the final clinical trials, which were expected after a delay until the end of last year, were pushed back to the first quarter of 2022. Gone.
Dupixent, meanwhile, brought in 5.2 billion euros in sales last year, a 53% increase from 2020, with more than half the revenue generated in the United States.