But there is reason to doubt that Sanofi's success with Acomplia will come from obesity alone.
In fact, if mergers made for healthier drug companies, Sanofi wouldn't need to buy anybody.
And consider that the merger between Sanofi-Synthelabo and Aventis is not yet three years old.
Pfizer recently bought out the Exubera stake of co-developer Sanofi-Aventis, creating a higher-margin opportunity.
It was formed in 2004 in a merger between two French companies, Sanofi-Synthelabo and Aventis.
French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis SA on Friday shortened its name to Sanofi, the Associated Press reports.
Led by losses for Sanofi, the French CAC 40 index fell 0.4% to 3438.26.
It expects to compete with Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, which plans to buy Chiron.
Only Sanofi-Aventis actually makes the vaccine within U.S. borders (its plant is in Swiftwater, Pa.).
"It will definitely guide how we treat patients, " says Sanofi-Aventis cancer research head Christoph Lengauer.
But Amusa insists that Sanofi isn't addressing important issues, such as the Plavix litigation.
The company has other drugs in development with Sanofi, including a promising cholesterol medicine.
So Sanofi has been deftly presenting its Acomplia data at cardiology meetings, sending heart doctors aflutter.
According to Sanofi's Ellison, the medicine blocks a receptor in the brain involved in stimulating appetite.
Last week, Sanofi-Aventis canceled development of a diabetes drug partly because of rising regulatory hurdles.
While many drug companies have been in a slump, Sanofi has been on a tear.
For example, Sanofi-Aventis gets close to a third of its sales from emerging markets.
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Now the second NGF-1 antibody, from Regeneron and Sanofi-Aventis, has been put on ice, too.
Genzyme, in the midst of a takeover dalliance with Sanofi-Aventis was another popular name.
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This gives Sanofi the market capitalisation, and thus the ammunition, to launch this bid.
Gardasil, made by Sanofi Pasteur MSD, is the most widely used of the two vaccines.
Isis even inked a marketing partnership with Genzyme, which is now part of Sanofi.
These companies all chose to merge with bigger companies like Sanofi, Idec, and Takeda, respectively.
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Bristol sells this Sanofi-invented drug, giving a significant share of profits back to the French drug giant.
Analysts generally expect Bristol and Sanofi-Synthelabo , which developed Plavix, to triumph, but they've been wrong before.
Even a company like Sanofi, which also trades here as an ADR, looks so incredibly appealing.
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Bernstein, has been a big booster of Rimonabant, and he predicts Sanofi shares will outperform the market.
Sanofi CEO Chris Viehbacher said yesterday at the same conference that expanding in the U.S. is critical.
Shares were buoyed by drug maker Sanofi, which rose 2.5% after first-quarter earnings jumped 50%, beating expectations.
The privately held company is working with Sanofi-Aventis to test a new approach to developing cancer drugs.
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