Topic: How To Invest

Hello, Pat: What do you think of the prospects for an aggressive investment in Concordia Healthcare? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Concordia Healthcare Corp., $48.01, symbol CXR on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 41.7 million; Market cap: $2.5 billion; www.concordiarx.com), is an Oakville, Ontario-based drug company that acquires and sells established treatments, mainly in the U.S. Concordia aims to acquire the rights to relatively small, mature products as opposed to the newer treatments larger pharmaceutical firms target. Its main products include Donnatal, for irritable bowel syndrome and acute enterocolitis; Zonegran, for epilepsy; and Photofrin, a cancer drug. In April 2015, the company paid $1.2 billion for 12 branded drugs and five generic products from Covis Pharma (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). These include Nilandron (prostate cancer); Dibenzyline (vascular disease); Lanoxin (heart disorders); and Plaqueni (lupus and rheumatoid arthritis). The Covis products should add $145 million of Concordia’s annual revenue, and the company feels it can save $20 million a year by eliminating overlapping operations. Concordia also recently purchased Amdipharm Mercury Limited for $3.5 billion. Including Amdipharm, the company now sells more…