Both sides of the coin for Sanofi

Both sides of the coin for Sanofi

Some interesting recent news in France about Sanofi, which use to be called Sanofi-Aventis, came out today. As we have seen in the past, the people in France like to protest. “Workers at Sanofi (SAN) had a message for politicians at protests in Paris this month: Job cuts by the nation’s biggest drugmaker are crushing morale among researchers and hurting the company’s ability to develop new products (http://www.biospace.com/News/genzyme-corporations-rd-culture-pushes-sanofi/267846) .”

I wonder if it is going to have an effect on what happens to the company? The chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher was not persuaded by those arguments.  After purchasing Genzyme Corp. for $20.1 billion last year, the CEO was inspired to refashion Sanofi in the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s image, a project he is pursuing at full bore. Scientists are now organized as hubs, in the hopes that scientists will be more open and share their ideas with one another. In the new headquarters in Paris, he has had coffee bars installed for workers to mingle.  He chose Genzyme executives to run the Boston R&D hub and Sanofi’s U.S. business development. His daughter is even interning at Genzyme. Sounds like he is keeping it all in the family, huh….

Besides the disgruntled employees in France, the FDA has also brought some charges against Sanofi too that they posted on July 12^th on their website. There appears to be mold problems in several of Sanofi’s plants located both in Canada and France.  The drug TheraCys BCG Live is produced in the Canadian plant and because of these issues has created a shortage of the drug. The FDA has requested renovations at the Canadian plant. (http://www.biospace.com/News/fda-to-meet-sanofi-france-execs-over-violations-at/267717)

What does this mean for the stock, SNYNF:OTCQB?

Overall its performance has been up a little over 7% for the year. It doesn’t appear that any analyst is following the stock? OR at least none that is evident on the Scottrade website. The stock has ranged from 62.30 in September of 2011 to 78.45 in July of 2011. Presently the stock is at 74.05, which is just bobbing below the high for the stock. 

If I was going to take a guess, I would say that the stock is going to go down on the news that I have provided above. However, if some new drugs or advancement comes out of Sanofi, then I think the stock will go up a bit. However, from what I see it doesn’t seem like it is going to go up much higher for now.

Check out the chart and the news, and let me know what you think!?