ANI Pharma at Raymond James Conference: Strategic Shift to Rare Diseases

On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIP) presented at the Raymond James & Associates’ 46th Annual Institutional Investors Conference. CEO Nikhil Lalwani outlined the company’s strategic pivot towards rare diseases, highlighting both the potential growth opportunities and challenges. While the rare disease sector is expected to constitute nearly half of ANI’s revenue by 2025, the company also faces hurdles such as Medicare reimbursement issues.

Key Takeaways

• ANI Pharma anticipates rare disease revenues to make up 48% to 49% of total revenues in 2025, a significant increase from 2021.
• The generics business has achieved consistent double-digit growth, providing essential cash flow.
• The acquisition of Alimera has expanded ANI’s rare disease portfolio with ILUVIEN and YUTIQ.
• ANI is addressing operational challenges, including a manufacturing warning letter at EyePoint.
• The company remains open to strategic M&A opportunities in the rare disease space.

Financial Results

ANI Pharma provided guidance for 2025, forecasting total revenues between $756 million and $776 million. Rare disease revenues are expected to reach $362 million to $377 million, driven by the Cortrophin gel and ILUVIEN/YUTIQ franchises.

• Cortrophin gel revenue is projected at $265 million to $274 million.
• ILUVIEN and YUTIQ are expected to contribute $97 million to $103 million.
• The generics business delivered approximately $300 million in 2024.
• Adjusted non-GAAP EBITDA is forecasted at $190 million to $200 million.

Operational Updates

The company has made significant strides in its operational strategy:

• Launch of purified Cortrophin gel and approval of a pre-filled syringe to enhance patient convenience.
• Expansion of the sales force, focusing on high ROI commercial efforts.
• Consolidation of ILUVIEN and YUTIQ under the ILUVIEN label to streamline operations.
• Launch of 17 new generic products in 2024, with plans for 10 to 15 new products in 2025.

Future Outlook

ANI Pharma’s future strategy involves:

• Continued organic growth in the rare disease segment, particularly for Cortrophin and ILUVIEN/YUTIQ.
• Expansion of the ACTH market by reaching a larger patient population.
• Ongoing double-digit growth in the generics business driven by R&D and new product launches.
• Potential for strategic M&A to enhance the rare disease portfolio.

Q&A Highlights

During the Q&A session, CEO Nikhil Lalwani addressed:

• The synergy between rare disease and generics businesses, emphasizing the generics segment’s role in funding rare disease growth.
• Strategies to double ILUVIEN and YUTIQ revenues by addressing unmet needs in diabetic macular edema and uveitis.

In conclusion, ANI Pharma’s strategic shift towards rare diseases, combined with its robust generics business, positions the company for significant growth. For a detailed discussion, readers are encouraged to refer to the full conference call transcript.

Full transcript - Raymond James & Associates’ 46th Annual Institutional Investors Conference 2025:

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Hey, everyone. Good afternoon. I’m Gary Nachman, a Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst at Raymond James. And we’re very excited to have Nikhil Lalwani, CEO of ANI Pharma, with us. ANI is a hybrid company, as I like to call it, with a growing rare disease business driven by key product, Cortrophin, and was expanded recently with the acquisition of Alimera and also a niche generics business that’s been growing consistently in the double digits.

They just reported earnings on Friday, gave very strong guidance for 2025, actually better than expected. So the key growth drivers are clicking really nicely. And it’s great to have you here, Nikhil, to talk through the ANI story. So thank you for coming.

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Thank you, Gary. It’s great to be here.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Great. So since this is probably a generalist audience, people may not be as familiar with ANI, let’s just first spend a few minutes giving a high level view of the company’s strategy, how you’ve been evolving, especially to be more of a rare disease company, and then just a quick overview of the key franchises just to lay the groundwork.

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Sure. So good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for spending time with us. So ANI, as Gary just pointed out, has been evolving and transforming into a rare disease business, with its as its primary driver of growth. In 2025, our guidance shows that rare disease will account for 48% to 49% of the company’s revenues. That number was zero in 2021.

So, we built the rare disease business through the launch of our lead rare disease asset, purified Cortrophin gel, which did delivered just under $200,000,000 of revenues in the third year of launch. And our guidance for 2025 is $265,000,000 to $274,000,000 As Gary alluded to, we expanded the scope and scale of our rare disease business in 2024 with the acquisition of Alimera. And throughout the acquisition of Alimera, we acquired the ILUVIEN and YUTIQ franchise, which are synergistic with our Cortrophin GelF franchise, in that the key call point where there is call point overlap is ophthalmology. That business, Iluvien and YUTIQ or that franchise, Iluvien and YUTIQ will do $97,000,000 to $103,000,000 in 2025. So our total rare disease business in 2025, our guidance is $362,000,000 to $377,000,000 And to put it in context, our in the context of our overall guidance for the total company is $756,000,000 to $776,000,000 in revenues for total company, of which $362,000,000 to $375,000,000 will be from rare disease.

We look at rare disease as the primary driver of growth and will grow this franchise both organically where we have significant multi year growth opportunity both in Cortrophin as well as the ILUVIEN and YUTIQ franchise. We also have a generics business. This business has delivered double digit growth for three years in a row and our guidance for 2025 was also to deliver double digit low double digit growth. We delivered $3.00 $1,000,000 approximately in sales for our generics business in 2024 and look to deliver low double digit growth for that business. That business’s growth is driven by a strong R and D capability that we have.

We launched 17 new products last year and look forward to launching 10 to 15 new products this year. And it’s really this growth sorry, this R and D capability along with a U. S. Based manufacturing footprint. We have three plants that are all based in The U.

S, Two in Minnesota and one in New Jersey, along with operational excellence. Those are the three sort of pillars of growth for our generics business. And thirdly, we have a brands business, what we used to refer to for people following us for a longer period of time as established brands, that brands business is high margin, low working capital and very strong cash flow generation. So these portfolio of businesses has enabled ANI to deliver over 30% CAGR on revenues and over 30% CAGR on profitability over the last three years and is a great platform for us to continue building on. And our guidance on EBITDA for adjusted non GAAP EBITDA for 2025 is $190,000,000 to $200,000,000 of adjusted non GAAP EBITDA.

So that’s an overview of ANI, and happy to share more.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Yes. That’s definitely a good overview. And there’s no question, both the rare disease and the generics business have both been going along really well. But do you think it makes sense to have both of those businesses under one roof? And are there any synergies that you realize across these businesses that helps you?

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Thank you. So the evolution of ANI started with generics and brands, and then we built a rare disease business from scratch. And I think that both of these businesses, right, the I told you we built a rare disease business from 0 to $3.62 to $375,000,000. And in the same timeframe, we doubled the generics business from 150,000,000 ish to 300,000,000. So both businesses are growing.

The growth comes from BD and M and A for the rare disease business, right, organic plus BD and M and A. And for the generics business, it’s investment OpEx investment in R and D to continue fueling the 10 to 15 launches every year and driving the low, high single digit, low double digit growth. These businesses are synergistic in several technical areas. As we’re navigating, on the generic side of the business, we have over 100 product families. We’re engaging with the FDA constantly on applications.

We run three manufacturing sites, right, which gives us a very good understanding of compliance and what it takes to, on the rare disease side of our businesses, our products are manufactured at supplier sites, at CMOs, but we are able to engage with them more meaningfully. So on the technical front, there is synergy across these two business lines. And look, I think that the generics and the brands business has enabled us to incubate and build this rare disease business from scratch. So while we’re moving the center of gravity towards the rare disease business and continuing to expand that, the generics business and the brands business play an important role in terms of contributing EBITDA cash flows that help us keep growing the rare disease business.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: There’s no sense that that makes a lot of sense for the transition phase. But do you think longer term, both of these businesses should coexist under one roof? And I know investors struggle with the multiples sometimes because you probably while you said center of gravity is shifting more to the rare disease, the multiple still is closer to the generic type multiples. So it’s just a little bit of a drag in that sense. So longer term, do you think you want to have both of these engines fueling the overall company?

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Yes. Look, strategically, we consider all options constantly. And at this time, what makes most sense is to continue driving both businesses because we have good impetus at this scale and size to continue driving both businesses and so the game plan is clear and we’re doing that. At some point, can we revisit those questions? Maybe.

And look, you know, we’re not the first company to try and transform, right? I think that what is remarkable is in the in a four year time frame to go from having 0% of your business to having half your business being from rare disease, while doubling your generics business, right, I think is quite remarkable. And full credit to the team and to our customers and partners and suppliers to help us and the investors to help us achieve that. And I would say that when you think of ANI rare disease, I think that we’ll look to continue expanding that. And when you look at ANI generics, it’s fueling our expansion in rare disease too.

So that’s how we think about the portfolio of businesses that we have today.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. No, that’s very fair. So shifting more to the rare disease business, which has been the biggest driver of growth. And like I said, you gave 2025 guidance. You just raised it from a conference earlier in the year.

And I think Cortrophin was one of the key reasons behind that. And the guidance represents 36% growth this year. So let’s get into that. So talk about the ACTH market, which has been growing very nicely. It’s a classic duopoly with a competitor that you could talk about.

And the sort of growth that you’ve been seeing, this was a beaten up market, but now there’s considerable headroom going forward. So maybe talk to the overall market and your positioning there.

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Yeah. So, you know, it’s, when we think of, ANI rare disease, the anchor is the patient. And, ACTH therapy benefited, benefits a certain number of patients today. That number of patients is half the number of patients that benefited from ACTH therapy in 2017 when the category was at its peak. We launched Cortrophin gel, in January of twenty twenty two.

And since we’ve launched the category which had been declining, the rate of decline slowed. And in 2025 sorry, in 2024, if you add our actuals with the competitors guidance from 2024, it implies a 24%, twenty five % growth and total market being at $660,000,000

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: And maybe just quickly explain ACTH in general, how it’s used, it’s sort of like a steroid, but just so people understand the type of drug that we’re talking about.

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: ACTH is a drug used to treat autoimmune indications of where other lines of treatment have not worked. It’s derived from the pituitary glands of porcine. So it’s porcine derived. And it is indicated it has multiple indications, both the competitor and we have multiple indications. Many decades ago, and then was discontinued by some.

And there was only one ACTH product available in the market, which is the competitors for many, many years until we launched our purified chlorprofen gel. And essentially, there’s a significant overlap in indications that we have and the competitor has, except for two main ones that I can speak to. One is, they have acute sorry. They have infantile spasms and we don’t. And we have acute gouty arthritis flares and they don’t.

Right? And the competitor is Mallinckrodt, for those new to the story because I keep saying competitor. I don’t you’d be to wonder who we’re talking about. So going back to the total market, if you add their guidance and which was given in November, and they’re reporting next Monday, I think, next Tuesday, but if you add if you assume their guidance, which was given in November and our actuals, the market from declining grew 24% and will be about six sixty million in 2024. That is half of almost half of what it was in 2017, which was 1,200,000,000.0.

And I also again, again, I anchored it in the patients because the number of patients that that are being treated today are also almost half the number of patients being treated back in 2017. Even beyond that, right, not just going to the to where if you talk about headroom for growth and where which patients can benefit, if you take the leading indications, right, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, nephrotic syndrome, when you look at patient populations from an epidemiological ACTH therapy for whom other therapies are not working optimally, that number is substantially bigger, like, you know, multiples higher. Right? And so when we’re talking about the headroom for expansion, it is it is even beyond what it was, the peak that was that was there in

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: the past.

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: The one point two billion in the past or the number of patients in the past. Now can we, you know, there are lots of markets that have there are lots of products that have large, addressable markets. And the question is, can you really get to the get the product to these, to these patients? And one statistic that we shared or parameter that we shared on Friday for the first time is when you look at our prescriber base, prescribers of Cortrophin, forty percent of them, Cortrophin gel is the first ACTH drug that they wrote, which means that they were naive to ACTH or never used any ACTH therapy or the competitors’ therapy. So for us, this is about market expansion, about getting this Cortrophin gel to the appropriate patients in need.

And it’s not about stealing market share or about any it’s really about increasing awareness and they’re growing and we’re growing. So I think that’s so the opportunity is significant and And we’re investing to continue strengthening the franchise and capturing this opportunity.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Yes. And another point that you had made on Friday was also that the acute, the Gaudi arthritis flares, that’s been sort of a gateway indication. So very quickly, that’s taken fifteen percent of the overall volume, and that’s contributing a lot to the additional physicians that are trying, right?

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Yeah. We, acute gouty arthritis flares is an indication we have and the competitor does not. And it accounts for fifteen percent of Cortrophin usage. And when you look at, you know, the prescribers that do write for acute gouty arthritis flares, fifteen percent of them acute gouty arthritis flares ends up being the first indication that they write for, but then they also write for other indications. Hence, they become a gateway, with one indication being a gateway for them considering Cortrophin for other indications that it could be appropriate for.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. And another important growth engine within the Cortrophin franchise is the ophthalmology piece that indication, which I think is uveitis. And maybe just talk about the benefits that you’ve gotten from the Alimera transaction that brought a bigger infrastructure and how you’ve been able to leverage that synergies.

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Thank you. So when we acquired Alimera, Alimera had the ILUVIEN and YUTIQ franchise, and they had about 30 sales representatives. And what we did after the acquisition, and this was part of the deal thesis, is to create a combined sales force of 46 sales reps to go out and reach about 3,600 ophthalmologists. And as they were doing that, to be promoting Cortrophin, Iluvien and YUTIQ. And the early signs of the combined sales force are positive.

We for Cortrophin, we’ve seen a doubling of the number of new patient starts in the fourth quarter versus what we had in the third quarter. And we look forward to sort of continue updating you on the progress of the combined ophthalmology sales force.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. And then maybe the last piece just in terms of the sales force. You also just added 20 reps for the initial indications. So and I think I even asked you the question on the call, but just about how you evaluate the ROI when I mean you have this major growth driver and you’re being very selective in terms of where you’re putting additional spend. But so far you’ve been getting a good return on that.

So maybe just talk to these additional reps and if we could see more down the road.

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: No, I think we drive and we have honed over the past three years the ability to figure out the highest ROI commercial efforts. So we initially launched with a sales force that was that was detailing across multiple indications. We then launched a pilot sales force in pulmonology and also in ophthalmology to try those new indications out. And when we saw traction in ophthalmology, that’s when we created the combined ophthalmology sales force with the Alomair acquisition. So we have 46 ish sales reps that are detailing into ophthalmology three products.

We have a much smaller team, dedicated to pulmonology with just Cortrophin. And then there’s the original team that was detailing into all indications other than pulmonology and ophthalmology that we’ve then added 20 reps to. So that’s our sales force. And we’re, you know, the good fortune we have is there’s actual growth opportunities across these indications and we’re continuously iterating and calibrating on where is the highest ROI commercial efforts to be done to drive growth for the franchise as well as continue getting the operating leverage necessary on the P and L.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. And then last one on Cortrophin, then we’ll shift gears a little bit. New news from Friday is you got your pre filled syringe approved. So congratulations, people might not think that’s a big deal. But talk about why you think that’s going to contribute just in terms of how it’s administered and maybe how you factor that in the guidance for this year?

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: So when you think of Cortrophin gel, it is these are five ml or one ml vials, which are largely self administered at home. So a patient that’s administering this drug has to take a syringe, draw the drug out from the vial, from a five ml vial, and then inject themselves and then, you know, replace and, you know, then put the the vial back in the fridge and then do it once more and once more. So what the prefilled syringe does is for patients that have dexterity issues, or for patients that just find this process to be onerous, right, of a two step multi step process, it reduces a step in the in the administration. So now you have a pre filled syringe. All you gotta do is inject yourself and then dispose off the syringe, and And that’s helpful for a subset of the patients.

And what it does is, look, it adds another presentation that is appropriate for a subset of patients. So we now have a five ml vial, a one ml vial, which gouty arthritis flares for being used in the prescriber’s office. And now we introduced a prefilled syringe. And we’re continuing to do work on other aspects to enhance patient and prescriber convenience. And we’ll talk more about that as we progress.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Okay, great. So let’s shift over to ILUVIEN and YUTIQ. And on the flip side, that guidance came in a little below what people expected and below the 4Q run rate, there’s a transition going on there. So one, there’s a couple of things that you had highlighted, pressure in the first quarter just from Medicare reimbursement challenges with Part B drugs, which is in general, that’s not specific to your product.

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Yes.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: And then two is getting an additional indication on the label for ILUVIEN and then ultimately having that as the only product that you’re promoting on the market and that helps also from a supply standpoint. So why don’t you talk to those different dynamics driving that business?

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: So I’ll talk first about the market access issue that was being faced in the first quarter. Essentially, there are programs that provide support for patient responsibility towards drugs. And some of those programs were underfunded in the first quarter, and that had an impact. Now what we’re doing about that is, first of all, patients that need access to these drugs and cannot afford their responsibility or their co pay, we have a patient a robust patient assistance program in place to support them to ensure that they can get the product. And then second is we’re working with the prescribers to understand changes that they’re making in their prescribing patterns as a result of this change and refining our approaches accordingly.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: And so people understand these are implants that are injected into the eye in a physician’s office.

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: That’s right.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: And you’ll talk about the indications after, but

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: just Yes. Iluvien and YUTIQ are both implants that are implanted in the eye. They last for multiple years. And they essentially are used. One is indicated for the treatment of diabetic macular edema, which is Iluvien.

And then YUTIQ is indicated for noninfectious uveitis affecting the posterior segment of the eye. And there are a uveitis affecting the posterior segment of the eye. And they’re implanted and, in the physician’s office. Right. They they the active is flucindol and acetonide.

One has a 0.18 strength and the other is zero point one nine. They’re essentially the same ophthalmic implant. And to his point to Gary’s point, it’s implanted in the physician’s office. So, it’s important for the physician to ensure that they’re obviously getting reimbursed, right, for, as their if it’s buy and bill Part b. Right?

And so we’re working with the prescribers to understand, you know, what their what changes they’re making and, consequently, are there any refinements that we need to do in our approach? As you said, Gary, this is not specific to ANI. This is all Part B, whichever drugs these foundations support or these programs support. Yeah, so I think think that’s that transition or change that we’re working through and is factored in our guidance. And then the second is, after we acquired Alimera, it had two products, Iluvien and YUTIQ.

And we learned that the CMO, this was through the closing and after, that the CMO that was manufacturing YUTIQ got a warning letter, which is EyePoint. So over time, we explore different options and obviously Alimera had been exploring different options after they bought. Alimera bought YUTIQ from EyePoint a couple of years before our transaction. And we were exploring different options. And what we had done is really we had engaged with EyePoint even before the deal closed between signing and closing and even more so after closing to address the issues that came up in the warning letter to support them, and that was going well.

We also export other opportunities to enhance option we went with is, as I was saying a few minutes ago, Iluvien and YUTIQ are essentially the same product. You know, they have esflucinolone, acetonide as the active. They are zero point one eight milligram strength and zero point one nine. And really, the zero point one nine is because it’s 0.18 and a few decimal points, so it’s a rounding. And the clinical trial for the indications was basically done on the same product.

That means the clinical trial is showing that the drug works for, ILU sorry, for DME and that it works with diabetic macular edema and for NIUPS, non infectious UBI that’s affecting posterior segment of the eye, was done on the same implant. So what we’ve done is to simplify our supply chain and enhance the supply security, we’re merging that we’re consolidating both indications on the ILUVIEN label. ILUVIEN will now be the only product that is being sold, only brand that’s being sold. It will have both indications. The manufacturing of ILUVIEN will be done, continue being done at Siegfried, which is a CMO in California that has been doing ILUVIEN manufacturing for over ten years.

We have extended our manufacturing agreement with them for another five years until 2029. We’re partnering with them to drive a capacity expansion at that plant. So more space allocated for us and adding a second manufacturing line. They were last inspected in 2023 and received 0483s. I mean, it’s no observations from the FDA.

And majority of our prescribers that prescribe YUTIQ have also prescribed Iluvien. So they’re really this very similar product or almost the same. There’s a slight difference in the implanter, which again, because most prescribers that have majority of our prescribers that have written for YUTIQ have also written for Iluvien, now the transition would go smoothly. But both these transitions are factored into the $97,000,000 to $103,000,000 of guidance that we’ve given for 2025.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. So just let’s round out these two products. You’re at $100,000,000 run rate for this year, you make your fixes, you get the additional indication, you’re comfortable with the manufacturing and the supply, you have some additional data sets, you don’t need to get into that. Where could this franchise go? What’s a realistic TAM for it?

Can you double it potentially?

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Yes. I mean, look, the long term potential of both of the franchise is intact. DME has over 53,000 patients that are you know, for whom anti VEGF, which is the standard of care, do not work optimally and that show positive response to steroid trial. That means that they show that, you know, a drug like ILUVIEN could work for them. Of that fifty three thousand, today we’re servicing less than five thousand.

So the opportunity is dramatically higher. The TAM is 10 times higher. For uveitis or noninfectious uveitis in the posterior segment of the eye, same thing. Less than five thousand patients with a TAM that is many multiples higher. So this franchise both this franchise can go much, much higher in as we work through this transition.

And that’s the reason why we did this acquisition.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. Let’s spend a minute or so on generics. Sure. Hard to ask a lot of questions on generics because there’s not a lot of visibility, but you just keep executing and launch new products and you just announced a new one with one hundred and eighty day exclusivity, that’s going to contribute very nicely. So just summarize what’s ANI’s secret sauce with your generic, your niche generics business, how you’re able to consistently get certain types of products approved, competing in certain markets to generate that kind of growth consistently in the double digits?

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Yes. Look, the secret sauce is three pieces. One is finding the right products, and we have a pipeline portfolio and pipeline team that’s been doing this for years and years, even before they were at ANI when we bought NuViduum, which is the company that’s R and D engine is the heart of the ANI R and D today. That’s one. Second is R and D execution.

We launched we got approval for and launched 17 new products in 2024. We’ve been doing 10 to 15 launches every year and that will continue in twenty twenty five five and beyond. And so it’s R and D execution and just ensuring that the team is focused, that we’re continuing to invest a percentage of sales in R and D and then letting the team do what the team does. And so that’s second. And then third, equally important is operational excellence, right?

So, you know, running three manufacturing plants, ensuring that they’re delivering the highest output possible, they’re making the right product, you know, ensuring that they’re compliant, strong FDA track record. So and that’s it. I mean, those are the three main pieces, obviously, and my commercial head will and commercial team will not feel appreciated if I don’t say this. And it’s true that then bringing this all together and taking it to the customers, being a supplier that is easy to work with and a trusted supplier that can help customers in moments of need, I think that’s the secret sauce.

Gary Nachman, Senior Biopharma Biotech Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. Last quick question, and we’re just about up on time. Just in terms of continued appetite for M and A, you’ve been acquisitive just to the Alimera deal in the fall, forward leverage is 2.5 times. Do you need to do deals? Are you still being opportunistic?

Do you have enough organically that can drive the growth that you want?

Nikhil Lalwani, CEO, ANI Pharma: Yes. We definitely have strong growth drivers between our generics business as well as our rare disease franchises organically to drive growth. In the near term, we’re focused on driving that growth as well as working through the transitions on the Almera acquisition. Having said that, for rare disease, the scope and scale will increase through BD and M and A, and we’re constantly looking. And opportunistically, if something comes up, we will consider it.

Having said that, from a leverage standpoint, right, from a leverage standpoint, historically, ANI has never gone for more than three turns of net leverage other than for a very short known period of time. So we’ll keep that kind of fiscal discipline in mind as we think about driving growth

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