Lotus Pharmaceutical Co (美時化學製藥), which makes and distributes oral and injection medicine, yesterday inked a cooperation deal with US-based drug maker Alvogen Group Inc, allowing Alvogen to acquire around 60 percent of its shares for US$200 million.
The deal still has to be approved by shareholders of Lotus Pharmaceutical, the company said.
“Lotus Pharmaceutical can achieve greater market access through this cooperation, and both companies can have a stronger portfolio because we have a different product-mix,” company chairman Charles Lin (林東和) said at a press conference.
Asked whether Lotus Pharmaceutical will have less control over its future direction, Lin said Alvogen and Lotus Pharmaceutical will both have a say in the company’s future decisions.
The Taiwan-based firm plans to sell up to 154.11 million shares at NT$39.5 per share to Alvogen through a private placement after the deal is approved by its shareholders.
Lotus Pharmaceutical plans to use the proceeds to finance research and development and set up international retail chains, especially in the US, the company said.
Both parties have agreed that Lotus Pharmaceutical will make drugs for Alvogen, especially those to go on sale in Asia.
The companies are to also cooperate on strategies for the markets in China, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.
“Our costs for making drugs for the Asian market are lower than Alvogen’s, and we will start by making Alvogen’s oral medicine for the treatment of cancer,” Lotus Pharmaceutical chief finance officer Ben Chung (鍾啟川) said.
Lotus Pharmaceutical makes 300 million pills a year.
Alvogen is to assist Lotus Pharmaceutical to apply for drug permits in the US and sell its drugs in the country.
It also plans to help Lotus Pharmaceutical to enhance its research and development capabilities, the Taiwanese company said.
Alvogen’s annual revenue is about US$400 million, Lotus Pharmaceutical said, adding that Alvogen’s sales to the US and Europe each account for 50 percent of its revenue.
From January through last month, Lotus Pharmaceutical posted revenue of NT$577.46 million, up 29.39 percent from a year ago, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
“One of our cancer treatment drugs successfully entered the Japanese market in October, and its sales will help our revenue to grow significantly, starting November,” Lin said.
During the first nine months of this year, the company reported profit of NT$26.99 million, or NT$0.47 per share, up from losses of NT$116.47 million, or NT$2.62 per share a year ago, according to company data.
Lotus Pharmaceutical’s shares rose 1.2 percent yesterday on the GRETAI Securities Market, outperforming the over-the-counter market’s 0.68 percent decline.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last