Even after Teva's application to launch an EpiPen alternative was rejected by the FDA, the Israeli company wants to try its luck again to eat up a market portion of Mylan's scandalous EpiPen.
The Israeli Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE: TEVA) has announced its plans to get FDA's approval to launch an alternative to EpiPen device by the end of the next year, reported Reuters. Earlier this year, Teva's application to market an EpiPen-like device was rejected based on demonstrating "major deficiencies" as compared to Mylan's (NASDAQ: Mylan [MYL]) drug. However, considering that EpiPen got in the middle of the price manipulation scandal, Teva might have another chance to get an approval.
"We requested a meeting with the FDA but didn't get a response. [But after] the media attention in the last two weeks, the FDA has come back to us and we will have a meeting very, very quickly," said Sigurdur Olafsson, Teva's Head of Global Generic Medicines.
Up until today, Mylan has a nearly total market share of the emergency anti-allergy auto-injection devices, accounting for 94% of the market in the U.S. EpiPen's constantly rising price caused a big public outburst in the past weeks as Mylan has increased the drug's price from about $100 to over $600 per package in the last years.
However, followed by a wave of criticism, Mylan has promised to launch a generic version of its flagship EpiPen product with a 50% lower price. A two-pack is expected to cost about $300 and will be launched in the next weeks.
But let's go back to Teva Pharmaceuticals. According to Reuters, some analysts believe that the scandal around Mylan has made FDA more likely to finally approve Teva's market application. In case Teva would manage to offer a similar device at a lower price, the company could win a big portion of EpiPen's market share, say Wall Street analysts.
In the light of these announcements, Teva's stock is expected to show promising performance quite soon. The company has demonstrated consistent revenue growth and reasonable debt levels, says The Street. Therefore, even though Teva's stock was down more than 20% since the beginning of 2016, the experts believe that the company is about to show good results.
Interestingly, Teva Pharmaceuticals has been the investment choice of several billionaires in the past months, says The Motley Fool. They reported that 8 out of 32 billionaires The Motley Fool is following have purchased almost 17 million Teva's shares in total. As the stock price has significantly declined in the last months, the experts agree that Teva's stock is a buy at the moment. As of writing, TEVA trades at $50.42.