In its Q4 2019 earnings call, CEO of Mylan, Heather Bresch said the company’s upcoming financial results could be impacted from the coronavirus outbreak, affected by the existing vulnerabilities of the drug supply chain, although its ‘business exposure is limited’.
“Given the global nature of our supply chain operations and businesses, our results could potentially be impacted,” Bresch said, adding that the situation is being monitored from a business perspective.
However, Mylan’s chairman, Robert Coury, commented that it is still too early to predict any commercial impact to the company’s operations.
Asked by investors about the proportion of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that the company sources from China, Rajiv Malik, the company’s president, commented that “the whole industry is in one way or another connected with China.”
However, he added, “You would expect us to be in a much better place, because of our backward integration and very diversified supply chain,” explaining that about 25 of the company’s products do not source any of their ingredients from China.
Moreover, Malik stated that the company also has ‘alternative arrangements’ regarding its supply of APIs and that he does not see any immediate impact, unless the situation persists for another few months.
Coury on his side claimed that “all API suppliers are going to be affected, not just Mylan,” adding that the organization has been ‘fortunate’ to vertically integrate and cover a significant amount of its own API needs.
Following the earning’s call, the company’s share price dropped 3.6%, at a time when Mylan is being prepared for the mid-2020-scheduled launch of Viatris, the company formed after the merger with Pfizer’s off-patent manufacturing business, Upjohn.
