Serial entrepreneur Robert Wessman, who has had a golden touch creating, acquiring and spinning off companies that primarily sell generic drugs, has brought together two of his fastest-growing enterprises as Lotus Pharmaceuticals has acquired a 100% equity stake in Alvogen.
The move, which transforms Alvogen into a subsidiary, catapults Taiwan-based Lotus into a top-20 specialty pharmaceutical company worldwide, according to a release. The deal has a total value of up to $2 billion.
The deal could also help shield Lotus—which does most of its business in Asia—from U.S. tariffs on pharmaceutical products. Thursday night, in a post on social media, President Donald Trump wrote that starting Oct. 1, the U.S. would impose a 100% levy on drugs imported by companies that aren't in the process of building U.S. facilities.
The transaction gives Lotus “access to U.S. R&D, manufacturing and commercial capabilities alongside our established strengths in Asia,” the company said in a release.
Alvogen is based in New Jersey and was established by Wessman in 2009 when he and his investors bought out Norwich Pharmaceuticals to gain its large-scale generics manufacturing facility in New York.
With that, Alvogen was off and running, growing rapidly through a string of acquisitions. One of those deals occurred in 2014 when Alvogen spent $200 million to gain a 67% stake in Lotus. In 2021, Alvogen spun off Lotus, selling it for $475 million to an investment group led by Wessman.
Now, four years later, Wessman, who is the chairman of both companies and the CEO of Alvogen, has announced the merging of the drugmakers—again.
“This combination of two powerhouses in the generics space represents a natural evolution of the long-standing partnership between the two companies and provides Lotus' specialty portfolio and dedicated team with a broader platform for growth and impact,” Wessman wrote on Linkedin.
The deal follows a couple other high-profile transactions in the generics space, notably the recent multibillion-dollar deals for Zentiva and Stada.