French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi achieved a profits leap in the second quarter of the year and raised its forecast for the year, in a results statement on Thursday which boosted shares.
Net profit jumped 73.4 percent from the equivalent figure in the second quarter of last year to 777 million euros ($1.04 billion).
Sales rose by just 0.9 percent to 8.1 billion euros, and the group said this reflected the impact of unfavourable exchange rates.
On a basis of constant exchange rates, sales rose by 6.4 percent.
The quarterly results took sales for the first half to 15.9 billion euros, a fall of 0.9 percent.
Net first-half profit was 1.86 billion euros, a leap of 29.5 percent from the performance at the same time last year
Sanofi said that these strong results enabled it to raise slightly its outlook for the year for an increase of 6.0-8.0 percent of earnings per share from 4.0-7.0 percent previously.
Activity had been helped by sales on emerging markets, and by its Genzyme and diabetes divisions.
The price of shares in the group was showing a surge of 3.12 percent to 79.29 euros in mid-morning trading in an overall French market which was down 0.91 percent.
