Several Eastern European generics companies achieved sales growth in 2018. Looking ahead, Grindeks plans to strengthen its presence in Russia and other CIS countries, Alkaloid is set to continue investing in production facilities and technologies, while Olainfarm looks to upgrade its product dossiers.

Perrigo has won a US appeals court ruling on its generic version of Pepcid Complete. However, the company’s Prescription generics business saw a 15% drop in sales and a 28% decline in operating profit as the firm reported its 2018 results, ahead of plans to separate the Prescription unit from the company as it transitions to become a ‘self-care’ company.

Mylan has blamed a sluggish uptake for its Copaxone rival and a delay in FDA approval of its generic version of Advair Diskus for the firm’s sales suffering a 4% drop and EBITDA falling by 8% in 2018.

Completing the planned spin-off of its specialty generics and API business into an independent publicly-traded company is one of four priorities that Mallinckrodt has set out for 2019. Despite expecting a “relatively negative” pricing environment this year, chief executive Mark Trudeau believes the Specialty Generics division will achieve growth.

Endo has announced that it will not pursue a previously-announced US$190 million deal to augment its injectables portfolio and pipeline by acquiring Somerset Therapeutics and its India-based Wintac contract development and manufacturing business. The news comes as Endo has reported US generics sales down by a third – and total turnover down by 15% – in 2018.