Bora Pharmaceuticals Co (保瑞藥業) has acquired six brand product licenses, rights and process technologies in the US for US$38.5 million, and expects them to start contributing to revenue in the fourth quarter of this year, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Bora’s board of directors approved the deal with Morristown, New Jersey-based Almatica Pharma Inc, as the Taiwanese firm moves into the brand product market to diversify risks away from generic drugs, the filing said.
The deal would enable Bora to leverage its sales platforms to enter the brand product market, it said.
Photo: CNA
Established in 2008, Almatica —a US subsidiary of Alvogen Group — focuses on the development, acquisition and commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Its product portfolio includes psychiatry, pain management, anti-infective and cardiovascular treatments, the company’s Web site says.
The six brand products are Zestril, Tenormin and Tenoretic for cardiovascular treatment, and Forfivo XL, Naprelan and Fluoxetine HCL for treating central nervous system issues, Bora said.
Sales of the six drugs in the US totaled about US$220 million last year, the company said, citing data from life sciences researcher Iqvia Institute.
As the deal was conducted through Bora’s subsidiary TWi Pharmaceuticals Inc (安成藥), it would greatly bolster the generic-drug unit’s product portfolio in the US market, while reducing its concentration on generic drugs, Bora chairman Bobby Sheng (盛保熙) told an investors’ conference in Taipei yesterday.
After TWi completes its takeover of the six products’ licenses and rights, it can deploy Bora group’s contract manufacturing and development expertise for mass production, which would not only increase TWi’s profit, but also boost the parent company’s global contract manufacturing business, Sheng said.
Bora’s second-quarter net profit surged 192 percent to NT$700.83 million (US$21.92 million) from NT$239.99 million in the same period last year. That translated into earnings per share (EPS) of NT$8.95, compared with NT$3.2 a year earlier.
EPS in the first half of the year was NT$22.54, up from NT$5.57 a year earlier, while gross margin improved to 46.09 percent, from 37.12 percent, it said.
With cumulative revenue in the first half of the year jumping 220.5 percent year-on-year to NT$7.92 billion and a better business outlook, the company yesterday raised its annual revenue growth forecast to between 30 and 35 percent, from its previous estimate of 20 to 30 percent.
It also raised its gross margin forecast to between 45 and 50 percent, from its earlier projection of 45 percent.
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market value closed above US$1 trillion for the first time in Taipei last week, with a raised sales forecast driven by robust artificial intelligence (AI) demand. TSMC saw its Taiwanese shares climb to a record high on Friday, a near 50 percent rise from an April low. That has made it the first Asian stock worth more than US$1 trillion, since PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣) briefly reached the milestone in 2007. As investors turned calm after their aggressive buying on Friday, amid optimism over the chipmaker’s business outlook, TSMC lost 0.43 percent to close at NT$1,150
RSS