What Does Sunshine Biopharma's Acquisition Of Nora Pharma Mean For The Generic Prescription Drugs Market?

The generic drug market has been growing since 1984 when the Hatch-Waxman Act encouraged manufacturing generics and developed a framework to regulate them.

Apart from name difference, generic drugs work the same as an already marketed brand-name drug in dosage form, safety, strength, administration, quality, performance characteristics and intended use.

Generic drug manufacturers can apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permission to produce drugs when a patent expires. Generic drugs typically cost 80% to 85% less than branded drugs.

If you look at your medications,  chances are you will find one or more generic drugs such as ibuprofen, famotidine, metformin, metoprolol and amphetamine salt combo.

Growing Global Generic Drugs Market

The popularity, need for and use of these drugs are fueling the growth of the global generic drug market, which is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.24% from 2022 to 2027. The market is expected to be worth $311.8 billion this year and $442.3 billion by 2027.

Companies like Sol-Gel Technologies Ltd. SLGL, Viatris Inc. VTRS and Sunshine Biopharma Inc. SBFM are researching, running trials and releasing products to meet demand.

Strategic Acquisition By Sunshine Biopharma

As the market continues to grow, strategic acquisitions like Sunshine Biopharma’s recent purchase of Nora Pharma Inc. could help shape the future of the generic drugs market.

Nora Pharma is now a wholly owned subsidiary of  Sunshine after the acquisition of its outstanding shares. The purchase price of approximately $21.9 million was paid by cash, Sunshine Biopharma common stock, and an earn-out amount.

Nora Pharma is one of North America’s fastest-growing generic pharmaceutical companies, according to the news release issued Oct. 20. This acquisition allows Sunshine Biopharma to expand its operations into generic prescription drugs and biosimilars.

“The strategic acquisition of Nora Pharma significantly expands our revenue stream and is expected to generate multiyear top-line and bottom-line growth going forward,” Sunshine Biopharma CEO Steve Slilaty said. “This acquisition gives Sunshine a solid position in the generic prescription drugs industry and brings us closer to our objective of becoming a fully integrated pharma company.”

Nora Pharma Founder and President said Sunshine will provide additional expertise that will help Nora with its accelerated growth plan to provide high-quality, affordable medicines to the Canadian market.

Nora Pharma has 36 employees working at its 15,000-square-foot Health Canada-certified facility and offers over 50 pharmaceutical products, including generic prescription drugs, over-the-counter products and biosimilars.

Nora Pharma and its service arm, which commercializes under the name Lea Solutions, will continue to operate without changes.

“Nora Pharma will operate as a subsidiary of Sunshine Biopharma, with Mr. Chamoun as president,” Slilaty said.  “We are happy to have the Nora employees join the Sunshine Biopharma family.”

About Sunshine Biopharma

Sunshine Biopharma SBFM is a fully integrated pharmaceutical company offering and researching life-saving medicines in a variety of therapeutic areas, including oncology and antivirals.

In addition to working with the University of Arizona to develop a treatment for COVID-19, the company also develops Adva-27a, a unique anti-cancer compound.

Sunshine Biopharma reports that tests conducted to date have demonstrated the effectiveness of Adva-27a at destroying multidrug-resistant cancer cells, including pancreatic, small-cell lung, breast and uterine sarcoma cancer cells.

Clinical trials for pancreatic cancer indication will be conducted at McGill University’s Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Canada, the company said. Sunshine Biopharma is also engaged in developing a novel anti-cancer mRNA called K1.1.

The company says the data collected to date has shown that K1.1 mRNA is capable of destroying cancer cells in vitro, including multidrug-resistant breast cancer cells (MCF-7/MDR), ovarian adenocarcinoma cells (OVCAR-3) and pancreatic cancer cells (SUIT-2).

Studies using nontransformed (normal) human cells (HMEC) have shown that K1.1 mRNA had little or no cytotoxic effects. K1.1 mRNA is readily adaptable for delivery to patients using the proven mRNA vaccine technology.

Learn more about the company here.

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