Drugmaker Sanofi building new factory in Vietnam

French drugmaker Sanofi SA said Friday that it's building a new medicine factory in Vietnam to supply drugs to that country and others in the region.

The move is part of a fast-growing trend among major international pharmaceutical companies to put factories and research centers in emerging markets that the industry increasingly is targeting for growth.

Paris-based Sanofi said it plans to spend about $75 million to build the factory in Ho Chi Minh City.

The factory will make medicines and consumer health products for sale in Vietnam and for export to other southeast Asian countries. It's expected to be fully operational by the end of 2015.

Medicine sales growth is declining in Western countries _ long the industry's key markets _ as government and private insurance plans there push for discounted prices as part of an effort to rein in health care spending. That's because those countries are squeezed by weak economies, budget deficits and older, sicker populations needing more medical care.

Years ago, drugmakers mainly operated sales offices and distribution centers in emerging markets, countries including China, India, Russia, Turkey, Mexico and Brazil.

Now, governments and a rising middle class in such countries are increasing spending on health care, and most big drugmakers have set goals of producing 25 percent or more of their total sales from emerging markets.

Those companies have found that setting up factories and research centers that hire local workers and collaborate with local research institutions helps sway their governments to buy more medicines from Western drugmakers, rather than just favoring local drugmakers, whose products often are of inferior quality.

And because of lower labor, land and other costs in emerging markets, the big drugmakers can sell their products at much lower prices than what they charge in the West.

Sanofi, the maker of diabetes drug Lantus and injected anticlotting drug Lovenox, noted that the new Vietnam factory will join its network of 40 manufacturing plants in emerging markets.

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Sanofi says MS Lemtrada drug gives long-term benefit

PARIS, March 21 (Reuters) - The effects of Sanofi's

experimental multiple sclerosis drug Lemtrada continue to benefit the majority of patients long after they have completed their treatment, the French drugmaker said on Thursday.

In an extension trial sponsored by the company that followed up patients who had taken part in two late-stage studies, more than half did not experience any relapses in the first year after completing a two-course treatment with Lemtrada.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system and can lead to numbness, paralysis and loss of vision. It affects 2.5 million people worldwide and has no cure.

Lemtrada, which is given via an intravenous drip for five days and then for three days a year later, has the potential to re-programme the immune system and could potentially change the long-term progression of the disease.

"When you think about therapies to treat MS you think of therapies that are taken chronically, that when you stop them their effects are gone," Michael Panzara, therapeutic area head for MS and neurological research at Sanofi's rare disease unit Genzyme, told Reuters.

"What you have here is a change in the immune system and a prolonged effect."

The study showed that more than 80 percent of patients did not require a third course of Lemtrada in the first year after treatment, while more than 70 percent of patients showed improved or stable disability after three years.

"These findings are important because they suggest that the benefits of Lemtrada as observed in phase III studies are maintained, even though most patients did not receive further dosing," said Edward Fox, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Clinic of Central Texas, who presented the results at a medical congress in San Diego, California.

Lemtrada is under review by the European Medicines Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which are expected to give their feedback by the end of 2013.

In addition to Lemtrada, Sanofi has developed MS pill Aubagio to boost growth after the patent loss on its ageing blockbusters and further its ambition to become a major player in this market.

Aubagio was launched in the U.S. in October, generating sales of 7 million euros ($9 million) in the last quarter of 2012.

The European Medicines Agency is due to give its verdict on the drug by the end of the month.

Shares in Sanofi, which have risen around 8 percent in the last month in the run-up to EMA's decision, closed at 77.32 euros on Thursday.

($1 = 0.7722 euros)

(Reporting by Elena Berton; editing by Keiron Henderson)

((elena.berton@thomsonreuters.com)(+33149495226)(Reuters

Messaging: elena.berton.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: SANOFI LEMTRADA/

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Sanofi says FDA starts review of diabetes drug

NEW YORK -- French drugmaker Sanofi said Monday the Food and Drug Administration is starting a review of its once-a-day diabetes treatment lixisenatide.

Lixisenatide is a treatment for type 2 diabetes in adults. It works by increasing the body's insulin production and is part of a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists. Other diabetes drugs in that group include Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Byetta and Bydureon.

European Union regulators approved lixisenatide Feb. 1. Sanofi said it plans to start selling the drug late in the first quarter under the name Lyxumia. It has not chosen a U.S. brand name for lixisenatide.

U.S. shares of Sanofi rose $1.38, or 2.9 percent, to $49.40 in morning trading.

Sanofi's biggest-selling product is the diabetes drug Lantus. Sales of Lantus rose 23 percent to $6.55 billion in 2012, and Sanofi's total revenue from diabetes drugs grew 17 percent to $7.64 billion in 2012.

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