French drugs company Sanofi-Aventis SA (SNY) Friday reported a 6.8% rise in third-quarter net profit due to robust sales growth of blockbuster drugs Lantus and Lovenox, and raised full-year guidance, citing an expected $500 million boost to fourth-quarter sales from the swine flu vaccine.

The company increased full-year guidance to at least 11% growth in adjusted earnings per share excluding selected items, up from the previous target of 10%.

Sanofi Friday also said it is buying the French beauty nutrition company Laboratoire Oenobiol to bolster its over-the-counter offering in its latest step to find new sources of growth to offset the threat of patent expiries. Sanofi didn't say how much it paid, but Laboratoire Oenobiol's annual sales are about EUR57 million.

Third-quarter net profit rose 6.8% to EUR1.42 billion compared with EUR1.33 billion a year ago. Sales rose 8% to EUR7.4 billion from EUR6.85 billion a year ago, above analysts' estimates of EUR7.37 billion, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of 14 analysts.

Favorable currency rates, mostly the stronger U.S. dollar and yen, added 2 percentage points to sales. Double-digit sales growth of diabetes drug Lantus and blood thinner Lovenox helped offset a steep drop in sales of cancer treatment Eloxatin, which were hit by competition from generics.

Lantus sales rose almost 22%, in a sign the company has managed to successfully shrug off the idea the drug could be linked to cancer.

Eloxatin sales were down 44%, at constant exchange rates, to EUR193 million, as generics competition in the U.S. and Europe weighed on its performance. Generics competition to its Plavix drug, which posted 4% sales growth at constant rates to EUR664 million, is expected to accelerate in the fourth quarter in Europe, Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher told journalists.

Under the direction of Viehbacher, who is looking to emerging markets to help fill the hole from future patent expiries, Sanofi has bought companies specializing in vaccines and generics in emerging markets.

Viehbacher is also pushing Sanofi to seek more partnerships to fill its pipeline of new products after slimming down its R&D operations and cutting a number of projects. In the past week, Sanofi has signed agreements with two U.S.-based companies to license treatments in the fields of cancer and diabetes.

The third quarter results show the company's "remarkable business transformation with business from franchises considered sustainable, such as over-the-counter and generics, growing gangbusters due to acquisitions," said Gbola Amusa, analyst with UBS. He rates shares neutral with a EUR50 target price.

Viehbacher repeated that the company is not pursuing a large acquisition, and said Friday that an acquisition of over EUR15 billion "is not on my radar screen." The pace of acquisitions will continue, however, he added, and the company has invested EUR6.2 billion in new assets so far this year.

U.K.-based rivals AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) also reported strong results this week. AstraZeneca got a boost in pandemic flu vaccine sales over the quarter and Glaxo, like Sanofi, said it expects sales of its H1N1 vaccine to lift fourth-quarter business.

Delays by manufacturers have held up delivery of the vaccine in the US and less than half of expected supplies have been shipped so far.

Viehbacher said Friday that Sanofi's H1N1 vaccine deliveries in the US, are "running well". He added approval for the vaccine in Europe is expected in the coming weeks, and Sanofi's H1N1 vaccine with an adjuvant, or booster ingredient, should be approved in December.

Sales of the swine flu vaccine will likely boost Sanofi's performance until as late as April 2010, Viehbacher said.

Sanofi shares have risen over 18% since the beginning of the year, outpacing the CAC-40 Paris index. At 0917 GMT, the stock was up 0.3%, or EUR0.17, to EUR51.05.

- By Mimosa Spencer, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 40 17 17 73; mimosa.spencer@dowjones.com