Alvotech (ALVO)

Wie das Geld verdient wird

Money arrives along two very different tracks. The first is supply: Alvotech manufactures the drug in Iceland and sells it to the commercial partner, who is contractually obliged to buy exclusively from Alvotech. The transfer price is normally a royalty of between 35% and 55% of the estimated net selling price, or an agreed floor price per unit, whichever is higher — so Alvotech captures a slice of the partner's end-market price rather than a fixed wholesale margin. This produced $276.3 million of product and service revenue in FY2025, split by region as $152.2 million Europe, $105.9 million USA and $18.2 million rest of world. The second track is licensing: partners pay upfronts and milestones tied to development, regulatory submissions and approvals, product launches and sales targets, over contracts that typically run ten to twenty years. This produced $310.1 million in FY2025 — more than half the top line — of which $120.5 million came from R&D and regulatory milestones, $126.0 million from clinical and process-lock development milestones and new licence agreements, and around $50 million from commercial milestones such as launches and sales thresholds. The practical consequence for a reader: milestone income is event-driven and lumpy, so revenue in any single year says little about the run-rate of the underlying product sales.

The advantage, such as it is, sits in the manufacturing platform. Alvotech states it has invested over $2 billion in a purpose-built, vertically integrated biosimilars platform that runs cell-line and process development, cGMP manufacture, clinical testing and regulatory filing in-house, and it argues this gives it advantages in quality, cost and speed to market against both originators and other biosimilar developers. Building an equivalent facility and getting it through FDA and EMA inspection takes years and a great deal of capital, which is a real barrier. But the barrier protects entry into the category, not pricing inside it: the company's own filing warns that its biosimilars face significant competition from the reference product, from other biosimilars and from other medicines treating the same indications, and that failure to compete may prevent meaningful market penetration. It also has no direct sales channel, so the customer relationship belongs to the partner. Narrow, and dependent on staying in the first wave of entrants for each reference product.

The underlying demand is not cyclical. Alvotech's products treat chronic conditions — rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, osteoporosis, wet AMD and diabetic macular oedema — where patients stay on therapy regardless of the economy, and the whole biosimilar category is pulled forward by payers and health systems trying to cut drug spend, a force that strengthens rather than weakens in a downturn. What actually moves Alvotech's numbers is not GDP but a calendar of one-off events: which reference product's patent expires next, whether the company lands in the first wave of entrants, when regulators approve, and when partners launch. Layered on top, the licence and milestone half of revenue is inherently lumpy — FY2025's $310.1 million came from named regulatory, clinical and launch milestones that do not repeat. So the business is defensive in its end demand but genuinely erratic in its reported revenue, and price erosion after a biosimilar launch is the norm, not the exception.

Wichtigste Risiken

• History of losses and no assurance of sustained profitability — Alvotech states it has incurred significant losses since inception and may continue to incur losses over the next several years and may never maintain profitability. It notes an accumulated deficit of $2,409.8 million as of 31 December 2025, and that the fourth quarter of 2025 was only the fourth quarter in its history in which it generated a profit.
• Substantial indebtedness and possible need for further funding — The company discloses substantial indebtedness and an intention to keep using leverage to execute its strategy, with consequences for the return on its assets. It adds that it may need to raise additional funding, which could dilute existing shareholders, restrict operations or force it to relinquish valuable rights, and that failure to obtain capital when needed could force it to delay, limit or terminate development programmes.
• Complete Response Letters from the FDA on three approved-elsewhere products — Alvotech received Complete Response Letters from the FDA on its Biologics License Applications for AVT03 (denosumab), AVT05 (golimumab) and AVT06 (aflibercept). It states that if the resubmissions are not approved within the expected timeframe, its business could be materially and adversely affected — these are products already approved in Europe, the UK and Japan.
• Dependence on commercial partners in the major markets — Because Alvotech has no direct sales, marketing or distribution capability, it depends on partners to commercialise its biosimilars in major markets. It states that disagreements with partners — for example over pricing — or a partner's failure to commercialise could have a material adverse effect on its revenue, business and operating results.
• Concentration on few products, few jurisdictions, few partners — The company discloses that its operational and financial results are subject to concentration risk: success depends on a limited number of product candidates, their approval in a limited number of jurisdictions and their commercialisation by a limited number of partners, so an unfavourable change affecting any one of them may disproportionately affect group results.
• Manufacturing and regulatory-inspection risk — Alvotech states it is subject to a multitude of manufacturing risks and that any adverse development affecting the manufacturing operations of its biosimilar products could substantially increase costs and limit supply. Approved products also remain subject to continuous regulatory obligations and scrutiny, and the company relies on third parties for part of its nonclinical and clinical studies.
• Material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting — The company discloses that it has identified material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting. If these are not remediated, or if further weaknesses arise, it may be unable to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable law, which it says may adversely affect investor confidence and the value of the ordinary shares.
• Patent litigation and healthcare cost-containment measures — Alvotech states that if it or a partner infringes, or is alleged to infringe, third-party intellectual property, its business could be harmed and that defending such claims is expensive and time consuming, potentially delaying development and commercialisation. Separately, it warns that measures to contain healthcare costs, including the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, may shrink the addressable market and pressure the prices its partners can obtain.

Die größten Kunden machen 84.3 % des Umsatzes aus

Extremely concentrated, and the filing quantifies it. Alvotech discloses every individual customer above ten percent of group revenue: in FY2025 Customer A was 27.2%, Customer B 22.5%, Customer C 22.5% and Customer D 12.1% — four counterparties for 84.3% of the group, with a fifth at 6.3%. These 'customers' are the commercial partners, not patients or pharmacies, since Alvotech sells nothing directly. The mix also shifts violently year to year: Customer B was 29.5% in 2024 and Customer C was 51.4% in 2023, while Customer D contributed nothing before 2025. Losing, or falling out with, any one of them would remove a large slice of revenue at once — a risk the company itself flags in its concentration risk factor.