Sanofi first-quarter misses forecasts on patent losses, forex

By Elena Berton PARIS (Reuters) – Sanofi reported lower-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Thursday as the effects of last year's patent losses and foreign exchange headwinds crimped growth from diabetes drugs, vaccines and rare disease unit Genzyme. But the French drugmaker said it expected to return to growth in the second half of the year and confirmed that annual profit would be flat to 5 percent lower than in 2012 at constant exchange rates. "We are in the last quarter of the patent cliff … …