French drugmaker Sanofi to step up push into China

 25-May-16, Reuters

Sanofi will step up its push into China, its second biggest market after the United States, in the next five years as part of a wider expansion into emerging countries, where it sees a large part of its future growth.

The French drugmaker is under pressure to diversify geographically and expand in areas such as oncology as it faces declining sales of its diabetes blockbuster Lantus.

Image: Reuters / Robert Pratta

The company went public with an unsolicited $9.3 billion offer to buy US cancer firm Medivation in April, setting up what could be a lengthy takeover battle.

"In the past years we have always managed to come up with a 5-10 percent growth in emerging economies and I think we will remain in this range this year, even if we should be closer to 5 percent than 10 percent," Peter Guenter, Sanofi's executive vice president for general medicines and emerging markets, said in an interview with Reuters.

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