Generics makers face Chinese threat

In an interesting twist on the usual generics news, it's the copycat makers who are predicted to suffer as competitors undercut their products. The source of this competition? None other than China, where generics companies are gearing up to supply finished products--rather than just pharma ingredients--for the first time. IMS Health is predicting that the Chinese manufacturers will "undercut all others on price." The result? Pain for international generics companies and, in trickle-up fashion, brand-name players, too.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs has downgraded its outlook for the generics sector as a whole, citing weak-to-mixed first-quarter results and fewer big new copycats on the horizon as some brand-name drugmakers ironed out their differences with generics challengers. The only two companies Goldman still favors are Teva and Mylan.

- see the China news at Pharmalot
- check out the downgrade story at CNN Money
- find the Goldman note at Barron's

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