* Sees sales growth at upper end of 3-5 percent range
* Q3 sales rise 12.4 percent to 288 million euros ($397.7 million)
* Q3 sales get temporary boost from stocking in Russia
* Shares rise as much as 5.8 percent
PARIS, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Ipsen slightly firmed its sales growth forecast for the year, lifting its shares by as much as 5.8 percent, after the French drugmaker's third-quarter sales got a boost from temporary stocking of drugs in Russia.
Ipsen said on Thursday its sales should grow at the upper end of its earlier forecast range of 3 to 5 percent and the company's shares rose as much as 5.8 percent.
"For the first time, more than half of our sales were made outside of the major European countries across all of our franchises including primary care," departing Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jean-Luc Belingard said in a statement.
Sales rose 12.4 percent in the third quarter to 288 million euros ($397.7 million) against the same period of last year and were up nearly 10 percent at constant currency exchange rates.
Revenues from specialty care, which includes cancer drug Decapeptyl, climbed 14.3 percent to 183.2 million euros while primary care, drugs prescribed by general practitioners including anti-constipation treatments, rose 9 percent.
For the first nine months sales increased 8.3 percent to 842 million euros.
Quarterly sales benefited from anticipated orders from Ipsen's distributors in Russia ahead of the implementation last month of a new law on the packaging of imported drugs. Ipsen estimated the one-off effect to have added 10 million to sales.
"Excluding the Russian stocking we believe the important Specialty Care segment underperformed expectations, with the shortfall more than offset by a very strong performance in Primary Care," Jefferies European Healthcare analysts wrote in a note.
Belingard will become executive chairman of French diagnostics group BioMerieux in January next year to succeed Alain Merieux, who founded BioMerieux in 1963.
Earlier this month the company said Belingard's departure from Ipsen after nine years at the helm was due to differences with the board over company strategy. Marc de Garidel was named Ipsen's new head.
Ipsen shares were up 5.7 percent at 25.52 GMT and down 34 percent for the year. The broader DJ healthcare index was little changed, up 0.22 percent. ($1=.7242 Euro) (Reporting by Caroline Jacobs; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)