Lotus Pharmaceutical Co (美時化學製藥) has received approval from Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency for its generic version of blood cancer drug Revlimid (lenalidomide), boosting its shares by as much as 3.54 percent in early Taipei trading yesterday.
The approval was for 2.5mg and 5mg capsules of lenalidomide, which it jointly developed with Japan’s Fuji Pharma Corp, Lotus Pharmaceutical said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
Lotus Pharmaceutical was responsible for developing the lenalidomide formula — the company’s first high-value generic product in Japan, while Fuji Pharma ran local bioequivalence studies of the drug.
Photo: Reuters
With the approval, Lotus Pharmaceutical is to supply the finished product to Fuji Pharma for commercialization in Japan. The companies expect to launch the product in Japan this year.
Sales of Revlimid in Japan totaled about US$282 million last year, Lotus Pharmaceutical said, citing data from life sciences researcher Iqvia Institute.
As of the second quarter, only Osaka, Japan-based Sawai Pharmaceutical Co had obtained agency approval for lenalidomide, but its generic product has not yet been marketed in the Japanese market, Lotus Pharmaceutical said.
“Lotus and Fuji are among the first to market their product in Japan and gain a good market share there,” Capital Investment Management Corp (群益投顧) said in a note yesterday. “Lotus received 16 approvals for its generic products worldwide in the second quarter, which is a remarkable achievement and will gradually contribute to its revenue and royalty income in the future.”
Lotus Pharmaceutical shares surged in early morning trading yesterday before retreating to close up 1.71 percent at NT$268.
Capital Investment gave Lotus Pharmaceutical a “buy” rating with a 12-month target price of NT$295.
Lotus Pharma’s net profit more than tripled to NT$1.27 billion (US$39.82 million) in the second quarter, up 286 percent from NT$327.67 million in the same period last year, the company said on Tuesday.
That translated into earnings per share (EPS) of NT$4.85, the best second-quarter performance in its history.
In the first half of the year, EPS totaled NT$9.43, up 217 percent year-on-year, it said.
Lotus Pharma’s cumulative revenue in the first seven months totaled NT$11.25 billion, up 58.16 percent from the same period last year, company data showed.
With better business prospects, the company projected annual revenue growth of 13 to 15 percent for this year, higher than its previous estimate of 7 to 10 percent, while gross margin is expected to reach 55 percent, compared with 50 percent in its earlier forecast.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS