RedHill Biopharma Ltd (RDHL)

[DorseyE]

Aemcolo has not had a good year through no fault of RedHill. The pandemic hit right after the company acquired Aemcolo, severely impacting global travel, and Aemcolo is a drug FDA-approved for travelers’ diarrhea caused by noninvasive strains of E. coli in adults. Therefore, the drug didn’t sell, yet, but once travel restrictions are gone and a third of Americans begin going abroad (as they usually do every year), sales should pick up.

Meanwhile, the other thing that’s most important for RDHL and is going to start defining its future - instead of promoting legacy products or even licensing decent-looking small scale products from big pharma, the company is getting FDA approval for new formulations or delivery methods of existing products. Last year, it got approval for Talicia, a combination drug containing omeprazole magnesium, amoxicillin and rifabutin, indicated for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection in adults. H.pylori and its effect on peptic ulcers is a big deal; this discovery actually got the Nobel prize in 2005. There are approved antibacterial therapies, but they all suffer from antibacterial resistance. In fact, here’s a little diagram that illustrates this: