UPDATE 2-Sanofi scraps all trials of Acomplia

* Ending clinical trials of Acomplia in all indications

* Move does not change company guidance for 2008

(Adds analyst, shares, background)

By Caroline Jacobs

PARIS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) finally threw in the towel on its troubled anti-obesity pill Acomplia on Wednesday by announcing it would discontinue all clinical trials involving the drug.

The decision comes after European health authorities last month said Acomplia should be withdrawn from sale over links to mental disorders. The drug already faced a bleak future after it failed to win U.S. marketing approval in 2007.

"Today's company decision has been taken in light of recent demands by certain national health authorities. As a result the feasibility of the global clinical development programme has been compromised," Sanofi said in a statement.

It said the decision would not affect its financial guidance for 2008 when it expects its adjusted earnings per share excluding selected items to grow by around 9 percent at at a euro/dollar rate of 1.371.

Sanofi shares barely reacted to the announcement, as analysts said such a move had been expected. The stock had been down by as much as 8.2 percent in the morning, before the announcemnt, and they were down 3.3 percent to 47.65 euros by 1544 GMT. The DJ healthcare index .SXDP was down 4.4 percent. "I don't think it's going to affect forecasts because Acomplia was already stripped out," Dresdner Kleinwort Ben Yeoh said. "It could yield cost savings in the R&D line but on the other hand it could be recycled into other R&D projects."

Sanofi had high hopes for Acomplia to make up for competition from generic rivals to several of its key drugs, forecasting it could rake in sales of several billion dollars a year.

Acomplia has been on sale since 2006. Its revenues in the first nine months of this year reached 81 million euros.

Several setbacks to its pipeline and lack of new products have damaged the credibility of Sanofi and led to the appointment of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) executive Chris Viehbacher to succeed in December Chief Executive Gerard Le Fur, formerly also head of Sanofi's Research and Development.

The group reiterated last month its belief that Acomplia could still bring significant benefits to obese and overweight patients. At the time it said it intended to continue with late-stage Phase III trials of the drug as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, involving thousands of patients.

(Reporting by Caroline Jacobs, Editing by Ben Hirschler and Hans Peters)