French drugmaker Sanofi will have only limited supplies of the Gaucher disease drug Cerezyme available between October and January because of further problems at its recently acquired Genzyme unit.

In a September 13th letter to US healthcare providers, published by the National Gaucher Foundation, Genzyme said the shortage was caused by "a temporary decrease in Cerezyme yields" coupled with "changes to our product release processes and procedures".

The company has scant stocks of the enzyme replacement therapy, used for the genetic disorder Gaucher's disease, following earlier manufacturing issues at Genzyme, bought by Sanofi for $20.1 billion this year.

Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Clark said he had expected fourth-quarter Cerezyme sales of $280 million, up from $250 million and $237 million in the previous two quarters, but this now looked optimistic.

The financial hit to Sanofi, however, will likely be limited. If Cerezyme sales fall back to the depressed fourth-quarter 2010 level of around $180 million, this would impact Sanofi's 2011 earnings per share by 0.5 per cent, Mr Clark said in a note.

Sanofi has a new biologics production plant in Framingham awaiting US regulatory approval, which will remove capacity constraints, suggesting the current problems should be short-term.

Reuters