Generic Drug Wars… Is Dr. Reddy’s The Answer? (RDY, TEVA, GSK)
Submitted by BioHealth Investor Blog
Generic drugs are just one of the many combined issues that are coming front and center in the world of healthcare reform. Frankly this is not a new notion. Not all. This weekend came a feature in Barron’s “Asian Trader: Pill Maker That’s Set To Pop” calling Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. (NYSE: RDY) of India the next big drug play for investors. We wanted to look closer under the hood here.
The Indian generic drug company’s ADR closed at $24.61 Friday and Barron’s noted two analysts with big price targets: one giving it room up to $29.63 and and another implied rupee price we pegged around $30.82.
Sales are expected to approximately double to around $3 billion by 2013 and the waves of name brand drugs coming off patent in the U.S. may offer some added hope there. That is the biggest wild card with many noting that generics have a chance to capture a part of what is put at $70 to $80 billion.
Dr. Reddy’s is thought of by the US investor public as a generic player, but it has its own products. It produces finished dosage forms, active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates, and biotechnology products; and it conducts R&D in cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, inflammation, and bacterial infection.
There are some issues here in other drug makers. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NASDAQ: TEVA) is perhaps the best generics player out there with a whopping $53 billion market cap today versus about $4.1 billion as Dr. Reddy’s market cap.
Teva is a large customer and Dr. Reddy’s also has a distribution pact with GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) for emerging markets and there are some who expect GSK to take a significant stake in the Indian drug maker. Teva’s stock is right around $60 and analysts on average have a price target of $63 and the highest target seen is $70.00. If Teva gets more downgrades on valuation, it seems as though it could pull Dr. Reddy’s down simply as the best can drag down or pull peers higher.
If the markets are flat or solid, it seems that Dr. Reddy’s may have a 2% or so Barron’s-pop. Our problem here with this one is that Dr. Reddy’s shares are up almost 200% in the last year. Its 52-week range is $7.27 to $27.33.
Dr. Reddy’s may have more room to run, but the big move has probably been seen. The recalls may be behind and they may not, ditto with FDA scrutiny. The stock is not cheap by some Indian company valuation standards, so it seems that waiting may offer better risk-reward here than chasing.
JON C. OGG
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