Why Shares of Viatris Fell 27.8% in 2021

Shares of pharmaceutical company Viatris (NASDAQ: VTRS) dropped 27.8% in 2021, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The company is barely over a year old as it was formed in November 2020, from the combination of Mylan and the Upjohn division of Pfizer. The stock reached a high of $18.71 in February 2021 but sank to a low of $11.96 that November. By the end of 2021, it had rebounded somewhat, closing at $15.53 on Dec. 31. So far in 2022, it has been as high as $15.34.

Viatris has been characterized as a company that is a graveyard of old, off-patent drugs. It's true that, thanks to Upjohn, it has a lot of off-patent legacy drugs, but many of them, such as Viagra, Lipitor, and EpiPen, are still bringing in a lot of money. Lipitor earned $1.2 billion in sales through nine months while Viagra brought in $412 million and EpiPen earned $337 million in sales. In addition, the company says its portfolio has 1,400 approved molecules, many of them complex generics and biosimilars brought in from Mylan.

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Source Fool.com