PARIS (Reuters) - French drugmaker Sanofi (PA:SASY) posted sluggish first-quarter profits on Friday, hurt by exchange rate effects and lower sales at its struggling diabetes and cardiovascular unit, and hinted at another difficult quarter ahead.
The company, which confirmed its full year outlook, said "a "new period of growth" was expected to begin in the second half of the year.
First-quarter business net income was up 0.4 percent at constant exchange rates to 1.6 billion euros (1.39 billion pounds). Total sales fell 0.4 percent to 7.9 billion.
Exchange rate movements had a negative effect of 8.3 percent.
Analysts polled by Reuters in partnership with Inquiry Financial had on average been expecting business net profit of 1.42 billion euros and net sales of 8 billion.