Sluggish Copaxone Rival And Delay To Generic Advair Hurt Mylan

Lower-than-expected uptake for its generic version of Teva’s Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) and a delay to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its rival to GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) Advair Diskus (fluticasone/salmeterol) threw a spanner in the works for Mylan in 2018, contributing to its sales falling by 4% to US$11.43 billion for the year and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) falling by more than 8% to US$3.03 billion.

“We experienced lower than expected uptake of our generic Copaxone, even after reducing the price by more than 50%, which perfectly illustrates the current distorted financial incentives within the specialty pharmacy marketplace,” commented Mylan CEO Heather Bresch