Alkermes' Incrementalism

Alkermes' success in creating a commercial product out of Genentech's growth hormone has taken it across a fundamental credibility gap all new drug delivery companies face. One result: an extraordinarily high valuation that has permitted it to raise plenty of cash. And it's using these assets--credibility, cash and valuation--to invest in programs which can bring it nearer term revenues and higher margins, in terms of new, accelerated, or risk-sharing deals. Indeed, it's even treating its current net-loss position as an asset, spending heavily now--which its profitable competitors can't, given their valuation-sensitive earnings constraints--and even signing complex deals to take its partners' expenses onto its own P&L, reimbursing itself with equity and downstream milestones. Moreover, it's shown itself, as in its acquisition of Advanced Inhalation Research, willing to dramatically expand its portfolio of technologies with work done on the outside. Alkermes also wants to develop products for its own account, though its strategy for commercializing them, while maintaining a strong delivery technology base, is unclear.