Shire down as swine flu victims flee to rivals

Britain's number three drugmaker Shire posted a 14% fall in revenue to $667 million (£403 million) this afternoon after being excluded from the swine flu vaccine bonanza which allowed rival Sanofi-Aventis to today raise its full-year forecasts.

Shire did well out of the ADHD drugs it specialises in, with Vyvanse, its bestseller, grabbing a 13.4% share of the important US market and benefiting from a back-to-school surge. But it saw total third-quarter sales drop 15% after it was hit by competition from generic rivals.

By contrast, French firm Sanofi followed in the footsteps of British giants GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca by cashing in on the swine flu, saying it make $500 million through sales of H1N1 vaccines in the fourth quarter.

In the third quarter, sales rose 8%, pushed up by anti-thrombosis drug Lovenox and diabetes treatment Lantus, as well as vaccines.

But generic competition thwarted higher growth. In the US, sales of Sanofi's cancer drug Eloxatin fell 44% after generics entered the market, while blood thinner Plavix, the world's second-best-selling drug, had to take on generic rivals in Europe.