Sanofi underscores pipeline advances, setbacks

Sanofi-Aventis had some good news and some bad news to deliver to analysts during its first pipeline update in two years. On the down side: Its Alzheimer's drug Xaliproden failed late-stage trials. But its antidepressant saredutant passed its late-stage trials, setting up a schedule to file for approval in Europe and the U.S. next year. Another antidepressant, Amibegron, met its primary goal in only one out of four clinical trials.

Sanofi research chief Marc Cluzel (photo) underscored his commitment to the obesity drug Acomplia, though he acknowledged that the drug now faces a long delay in the U.S. Sanofi also announced that it has 48 therapies in late-stage development and expects to file on 31 of them by the end of 2010.

- see Sanofi's release on the pipeline
- read the AP report from Paris

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