Oh, the good old days of late 2004, when you could have bought into top-notch generic drugmakers like Teva (NASDAQ:TEVA), Barr Labs (NYSE:BRL), or MylanLabs (NYSE:MYL) at attractive prices. They're all still good companies, but the valuations are no longer quite so enticing.
Mylan's fiscal third quarter was more about better growth tomorrow than performance today. Revenue was up about 7%, as a new transdermal pain patch helped offset lower sales of products like omeprazole (the generic form of AstraZeneca's (NYSE:AZN) Prilosec). Profitability improved, though, as lower SG&A expense from the closure of a business unit led to a 59% jump in operating income.
Investors seemed most excited by the company's guidance for fiscal 2007 -- its midpoint was about 6% higher than the prior average estimate.
Mylan certainly has its charms. The company recently struck a good deal with ForestLabs (NYSE:FRX) for the hypertension (and possibly congestive heart failure) drug nebivolol. The combination of the upfront cash payment and the state of Forest's present pipeline should make them a highly motivated partner indeed.
In addition, Mylan seems to have a solid pipeline of its own. The company has 60 filings pending with the FDA (representing approximately $44 billion in branded sales) and would be first to file on 13 of them -- in the generics world, being first to file for a new drug gives the company a window of marketing exclusivity. Of course, a pipeline is no guarantee -- for example, while the company is cleared to begin selling generic Ditropan XL fairly soon, it's still battling with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) over that firm's drug Norvasc.
Mylan is certainly better off today than it was just a short time ago (when it suffered from a weaker pipeline), but that doesn't automatically make this company a bargain. I expect meaningful improvement in cash flow over the next few years, but even if that's the case, the stock seems to already account for that. As a result, I just can't get too excited about paying brand-name prices for this generics company.
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares). Pfizer is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
