Sanofi looking at 1-2 bn euros of acquisitions per year

French pharmaceutical group Sanofi is looking to make annual acquisitions of up to two billion euros to boost its priority sectors, managing director Chris Viehbacher told Monday's Le Figaro newspaper.

"We are going to keep reinforcing the growth platforms to a tune of one to two billion euros ($1.4-2.7 billion) a year in acquisitions," he said.

The designated areas are diabetes treatment, vaccines, animal health, self-medication, emerging markets, rare diseases and "other innovative products," he said.

The announced strategy comes after Sanofi last month downgraded its full-year outlook because of falling sales due to end of some exclusive patent rights in August.

Viehbacher told Le Figaro that two-thirds of Sanofi's research budget now went to biotechnological treatments difficult to copy.

"There is therefore little risk" of encountering the same patent-loss problem, he said.

In the interview, Viehbacher made no mention of a brewing legal case over Gardasil, a Sanofi vaccine that combats uterine cancer.

An 18-year-old Frenchwoman last Friday lodged a criminal complaint claiming the vaccine had side-effects resulted in an inflammation of her nervous system.

A Paris legal firm said another three women planned to lodge other complaints within the next two weeks after suffering different problems.