Topic: How To Invest

Dear Pat: What is your opinion on these two: Concordia Healthcare and Nobilis? Your help is very much appreciated.

Article Excerpt

Concordia Healthcare, $64.13, symbol CXR on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 28.9 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; www.concordiarx.com), is an Oakville, Ontario-based drug company that acquires and sells established drugs, mainly in the U.S. The company aims to acquire the rights to relatively small, mature products as opposed to the newer treatments larger pharmaceutical firms target. Concordia recently bought the North American rights to the epilepsy drug Zonegran from Eisai Inc. for $91.4 million (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). The company’s growth prospects are now significantly tied to this drug, which was launched in the U.S. in 2000 as a second-generation epilepsy treatment. Eisai has been selling Zonegran, a generic version of which was released in 2006, in the U.S. for the last 10 years. Zonegran’s investment appeal stems from its steady demand and limited sales and marketing requirements. The company’s other main drug is Donnatal, a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome and acute enterocolitis that it bought earlier this…