Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/euPrivateEquityNews/idUSTRE55P2PM20090626
Sanofi may suffer, whatever final Lantus verdict
Fri Jun 26, 2009 7:33am EDT
By Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - The history of past drug scares suggests concerns over the safety of Sanofi-Aventis's diabetes treatment Lantus will hit sales, whether or not a suggested link to cancer proves real.
Shares in the French drugmaker sank 7 percent on Friday, extending losses from the previous session, on growing concern that researchers are about to publish a damaging analysis of the company's modern, or analog, insulin drug.
"Our information is that indeed a study is likely to be published soon raising the possibility of a link between Lantus use and a certain cancer type," Sanford Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson said in a research note.
"We understand this will not come out in a small medical journal, but rather one of the major medical journals and it will be the first time that such a high-profile analysis has been published linking the drug to cancer in humans."