AMRX might qualify

Investment Analysis Clubs Saul’s Investing Discussions
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My wife has high cholesterol and one of the two meds she takes, Welchol, is quite expensive and hasn’t gone generic (the other did a few months ago).

The generic name for the drug is Colesevelam HCl and has been produced under a patent owned by Genzyme. It is marketed in the US by Daiichi Sankyo under the brand name Welchol and elsewhere by Genzyme as Cholestagel. In Canada it is marketed by Valeant as Lodalis.

Just for the heck of it, I took a peek this morning and found that Amneal Pharmaceuticals (AMRX) just announced they have FDA approval as of yesterday and will start immediate commercial shipments of the drug.

While I have not done complete due diligence on the company, it’s been around for quite a while, but just got a symbol on the NYSE. Welchol currently has about a $500 million annual revenue base, but I don’t know enough about the drug trade to know how much of that a generic can capture, but since Amneal does about $775 million in revenues, it’s likely to be enough to move the needle - at least until other generics are approved.

I haven’t found much about the company past this (just started looking a little while ago):
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/amrx/profile

Pending my doing a complete write-up, I picked some of the shares up.

I would welcome any feedback or opinions.

Jeff

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Amneal is one of the larger companies manufacturing generic pharmaceuticals in the US. They have been around since 2002. They have around 200 products ranging from injectables, topical, solid (tablets and capsules, liquids. The generic Welchol launch may move the needle a little, but we have to remember out of that $500 million annual market, other generic manufacturers will be able to start producing it as well. AMRX is up about 4% today, so “the market” seems to think it will move the needle some.

It may very well be a good investment in a solid company, but they lack the growth that most companies talked about here have. Or, at best, a little “choppy”.

Revenue last few years was:
2013 511.5M
2014 596M
2015 860.5M
2016 824.4M
2017 775.8M

Hope this helps.

Kevin

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Thanks Kevin.

Just came across this:
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries announced that one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries has launched in US, the Authorized Generic (AG) version for Daiichi Sankyo Inc.'s Welchol (colesevelam hydrochloride) 625mg tablets.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-cm/sun-pharma-…

I think I’ll pick up the few ill considered chips I made and study the field a bit more before recommitting.

Better up than down while learning a lesson.

Jeff