Shares of French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) have been tumbling more than 5% in morning trading on news that a Swiss drug maker said it expects to receive approval to sell a generic version of Sanofi's anti-clotting agent Plavix.History is repeating itself. After facing generic competition in the United States to its second-biggest product in 2006, Sanofi-Aventis is now dealing with a similar threat in Europe. Competition concerns came after Switzerland's Schweizerhall Holding AG announced it would launch a copy of the Plavix blood thinner that could be bought for a lower price. Schweizerhall said it expects German regulators to approve its generic version of Plavix, called clopidogrel.
Sanofi-Aventis's fears about generic competition are justified as the company had to fight against a similar situation less than a year ago. Back in 2006, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY), which develops the product with Sanofi, saw a big plunge in its sales after Canadian generics company Apotex Inc. launched a cut-price copy of the drug.
Commenting on the news, analysts at Merrill Lynch expressed their worries about the company's earnings per share, which may be hurt by generic competition to the Plavix drug in
Sanofi responded to the threat of a possible generic competitor in
Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
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