Guy Featherstone: So good morning, everyone, and welcome to Hikma's 2026 Interim Results Meeting with our CEO, Said Darwazah; and acting CFO, Areb KURDI; and we also have Susan Ringdal, and myself, Guy Featherstone, Investor Relations. Before we start, I would like to remind you that any forward-looking statements or projections made by Hikma during this call are made in good faith based on information currently available and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. For further information, please see the Principal Risks and Uncertainties section in Hikma's latest annual report. And with that, I'll hand over to Said for opening remarks before we head to Q&A.
Said Darwazah: Thank you so much. So just quickly a few things to say. Obviously, so the results. Sales are up. I think what's very exciting is that EBIT and EBITDA are up by almost 8%. EPS is up by 5%. And what we -- when we met last time, we said we had like 4 targets this year. One is to stabilize the business. And we're talking about the injectable business. The other 2 businesses we're doing well. And I think this has been achieved. We talked about making the company more agile, quicker decision-making. And we have taken tons of decisions and now the way the company is structured, I think very much supports this quick decision-making. It supports the senior management of the team to take quick decisions and to take quick actions and reactions when they are needed. We said we will invest for the future. We have done a lot of investment in people, I think, is most important in talent and people. We have done investment in equipment and of course, R&D spend, as you can see, is up. So we are really setting up the company for the future. So we hope that, again, we feel extremely comfortable to reiterate full year guidance. As we have seen MENA has done extremely well, exemplary good. I've always told you, this company has 3 engines to drive it. And I always said that even when one of the divisions or one the engines is facing some headwinds, the others can make it up and move it faster. So MENA is doing extremely well, and we -- obviously, we have big ambitions for the MENA to continue. Injectables. We -- as you see that we have -- as we said, we have stabilized the business. And Rx is delivering very good margins compared to where it was just a few years ago. So these are like the background. Again, I think we should always remember that this is a company that's been driven that has 3 businesses. And if you look at historically, we've always had one of the businesses push the company forward if the others were lagging behind. And if you look at the CAGR over the last 10 years and of course, the first 6 half of this year, we'll see that every year, there has been growth, both in sales and in profitability. I think CAGR for the last 10 years was 8% for sales and 6% or 5% for our profitability. We hope to start driving injectable business next year to start growing the profitability, top line and bottom line there as we continue to move the other divisions forward. So with that, we -- Areb is here with me also, and we are ready to take your questions.
Guy Featherstone: [Operator Instructions]
James Gordon: James Gordon from Barclays. The first question was on the branded business. So in terms of phasing, so you had a strong H1, both on the top line and the margin. And I think for the full year, you said you'll be at the better end on the top line. How much of the H1 strength was this one-off factor or the phasing factor and also how much of the costs. So what would H1 look like on a clean basis? How much more cautious do we need to be about H2? That would be the first question, please. And then the second question was generics. I think although you reiterated the guidance overall, I think the margin before was around 20%, and it's now approaching 20%. So what if anything has changed there? And is that a big difference or just a minor difference, please?
Said Darwazah: You want to take that?
Areb AL KURDI: In terms of sales, James, this is the normal trend that we see every year. There is a trend in tender business. So there was many tender businesses delivered in the first half in terms of sales. Also, we've seen some good demand, especially at the beginning of the wars. Some governments started to stock up, although we see this is -- this has normalized at the end of H1. But also importantly, we had many sales and marketing events and expenses that were either intentionally postponed due to the situation or we had to postpone them because there was limitations on the travel, et cetera. So we will see those events happening in the second half.
James Gordon: Are you able to quantify those? Are you able to say broadly, how significant those are if we're trying to do like a clean model for H2?
Areb AL KURDI: So I would say H1 would be 55% weighted in terms of sales and more weighted towards EBIT in the second half.
Said Darwazah: Obviously, we're also taking in consideration that things haven't settled down yet and there's a lot of uncertainty in the region, which historically has been helpful to Hikma, but always it's wise to be careful about the plan for the second half. The Rx division, we said that we would push the margins to where they are now. Sodium oxybate has done very, very well. We have seen a little more competition for generic Advair. But we also -- as we've said before, we do have big plans for CMO. We see CMO business picking up there. So any kind of headwinds that, let's say, sodium oxybate will face will be picked up by the CMO business.
Zain Ebrahim: Zain Ebrahim From JPMorgan. First question is on TYZAVAN. If you could provide us maybe a bit more color on how that's performing relative to your expectations. I think you said the 80% of Vanco Ready customers have now switched or partially switched on to TYZAVAN. So how does that compare versus your expectations at the start of this year? And what underpins your confidence in an acceleration in the second half of this year for TYZAVAN and into 2027? That's the first question. Second question is on Rx launches. I think you've had quite a strong allowance so far with tapentadol. So more broadly, are there any other launches that we should be excited about in the next 12 to 18 months? And what's the latest on epinephrine nasal spray filing?
Said Darwazah: Okay. So for TYZAVAN, it takes a long time for the formularies of the different buying groups do to take it on. And even after they say we will, it takes some time for the different hospitals to start stocking and using it. So we have been seeing a pickup month by month, and we feel very comfortable that for the second of the half or the second half of this year that we will continue seeing this increase month by month. I think the last 3 months of this year should be very indicative of -- to give us a full idea of how to be doing next year. So many of the hospital groups that we were trying to get them to take the product, have taken it. So we will be seeing the benefit of that. The second question was.
Guy Featherstone: Tapentadol is going very well. I mean we're authorized generic on that, and it's just been a good launch. But I think more broadly, the question was around launches, the launch environment and then obviously, that then probably goes into epi nasal.
Said Darwazah: But for the epi, we have -- I mean the submission has been done. We're waiting for, obviously, for the FDA to accept the submission, and that would give us a clear idea of when we get the approval. In the meantime, we have approved the plan for the product. Obviously, it needs a major investment in promotion and hiring people and so on. So we will start -- we will begin this as soon as the FDA accepts the submission.
Giang Nguyen: Giang Nguyen from Citi. So I have 2 questions, please. The first one is in terms of the U.S. in injectables business outside TYZAVAN , could you give some comments on how the rest of the business has been trending? And especially, what are you seeing in terms of momentum carrying into the second half of the year? And my second question is looking at your full year guidance, which you have reiterated. Clearly, first half performance has been very good, not only branded, but also the margins that you have got in injectables and Rx despite all the increased investment, et cetera. So what would you want to see to be able to increase the guidance for the year.
Said Darwazah: Yes. As we said, a lot of work has been put into stabilizing the business and hiring people across all levels, actually, it's not just senior people, but across all levels, including operators for the plants bringing in the equipment, making sure the bottlenecks are taken care of. We've invested heavily in supply chain, both internally and we brought in external consultants to help us. And we are seeing -- actually we are seeing that we have now, as we say, safety stocks, though we haven't had safety stock for a long term. These are very important because they give us the ability to react to the market when there's a need when there's a shortage, and there's -- obviously, it's much more profitable selling those. So we have been started building up the safety stock. And I believe that all these measures that we are taking increasing the number of units that we are manufacturing. We've always had an issue of supplying the market. This hasn't been the issue of demand. So now I think we have much better supply for the market. In terms of R&D expenditure for the injectable business, there is a huge increase there. We have a big team in Croatia, and we have been giving that team everything they need in terms of personnel, in terms of equipment or whatever they need trying to expedite things and move them as fast as possible for the submissions. I don't know how many submissions if we've given out any numbers. But we will be seeing an acceleration of submissions there. And clearly, those submissions will be driving business '28 and further. So we're very optimistic about the future of the injectables business.
Beatrice Fairbairn: Beatrice Fairbairn from Berenberg. Certainly, I had a couple on the kind of CMO business. You noted that you expect CMO revenues to pick up in H2 for injectables. Could you just clarify what level of visibility you have on this? And then on the Hikma Rx segment, the CMO side, you've obviously got your target out there for 20% CMO revenue contribution by 2030 for the segment. Could you give an update on where you're tracking relative to that? And what level of visibility you have? And then just a quick one on cost inflation. You needed to absorb the impact of the cost impact in H1. What cost impact you expect from inflation in H2 and looking further out.
Areb AL KURDI: In terms of inflation, we've been able to absorb all the inflation that we faced so far. The team really has been doing really great and navigating the all the cost increases, and this is evident by the margins that we have. And we believe we will be able to continue to absorb the inflation in the second half. In terms of the CMO Rx, we are trending well. We are doing good in terms of the plan. And we will start commercializing next year for the CMO.
Susan Ringdal: In terms of the target that we said, we still feel comfortable that we can achieve 20% of the Rx revenue from CMO to 2030. So we have won, as we've talked about some of the contracts that we've won, but we continue to talk to new partners, sign new agreements. So we are we are gradually building that business.
Said Darwazah: There's a lot of -- again, there's a lot of demand. We're talking to many companies about that, and there has been some serious investment in the Columbus plant and serious expansion that is coming on board. And as that comes, we will be able to take care of more of that business. So we still are very optimistic. That's the -- actually the only thing that we still haven't done from all what we said is hire a top CMO commercial guy. We still very much are looking for that. And we hope to have that filled before the end of the year.
Susan Ringdal: In terms of the confidence in injectable CMO in the second half, -- it will be similar to last year. Last year, we had indicated that the CMO would come largely in the second half. That's really down to the timing of when we decide to fulfill that those orders. And so we will see that come in the second half. We have good visibility. But as we had said at the beginning of the year, the CMO will be slightly lower this year than it was last year. So nothing has changed yet.
Victor Floch: Victor Floch, BNP Paribas. So maybe 2 questions on my end. One on potential U.S. tariffs and one on midterm targets. So on potential U.S. tariffs, so you were quite keen to highlight your continued ambition to invest into your U.S. capacity a few weeks ago. So I was just wondering whether you've spoken to the U.S. administration since then. One of your competitors, Endo, has been arguing yesterday that this tariff represented actually an opportunity for them even though they don't have local capacity in the U.S. So just interesting to get your take on that. Does it change anything in your strategy? And yes, if you have any feedback from the U.S. administration would be nice. And the second one on midterm targets. So it looks like the business is doing well and you should -- it looks pretty much in track to deliver the guidance for this year, but we still lack midterm targets. I was just wondering whether you still need to see before being able to set up new mid-term targets? Is it other capacity, business trends, like help us understand the key moving parts there?
Susan Ringdal: I'll take the tariffs and Areb, you can take the midterm guidance. I mean, on tariffs, we are one of the largest domestic manufacturers for generics in the U.S. So we feel that we are in a very strong position. We have invested a lot over the years in our U.S. manufacturing, and we continue to invest in U.S. manufacturing. So we feel that we have a strong position. We have very good relationships with legislators in the U.S. We are in Washington very often, and we believe very strongly in building strong domestic manufacturing in the U.S. So we do think that we are well positioned there. And the majority of the products that we sell in the U.S. are made in the U.S. Rx is almost 100% made 90% in the U.S.
Said Darwazah: Rx is almost 100% made 90% in the U.S. And for injectables, we have -- obviously, we are increasing capacity in Cherry Hill, and we said in '28, the Bedford plant will come on, which is purely injectable also, so increased percentage. We think about it seriously, there are -- I don't think there is any country in the world that taxes imported pharmaceutical. So tariffs become -- it's something that we've heard a lot, but we haven't seen it. And I really doubt that you will see it. This is my personal...
Areb AL KURDI: As Said and Susan said, we'll -- we have the foundation in the U.S. We invested in the U.S. We're committed to invest in the U.S. There is really no change to our strategy. We have already committed. Last, maybe Said, you can mention a few words about what commitment to Ohio, also state and we got some incentive...
Said Darwazah: Yes. We have met with the development agencies in Ohio state. I was there a few months ago, and I met with the governor of Ohio. And they are very pleased with the amount of investment that we are making, both in manufacturing and R&D, and we have committed that we will continue the expansion there. So we received like $50 million of incentives from the state of Ohio. That will be something like $5 million over 10 years -- $5 million every year to up to $50 million. So this is the first time we do this kind of, let's say, PR and working with the states. But I believe that Hikma because it has such a big made in the U.S.A. footprint. We have been invited actually to Washington, we invited to the White House. We -- I think we work with the committees there regarding pharmaceuticals made in the U.S.A. So our profile has really been significantly, let's say, more emphasis on that. And actually, I joke, I was the first Jordanian to be allowed to have the global entry -- is given the global entry visa to the U.S.. And the ex-secretary of -- what was her name? The one that -- of security, Homeland Security. She actually came to Jordan personally to get to give me the big thing in Jordan. It's just -- it's a way to show that Hikma's profile has been really much more now important than before. And obviously, also the very important news we had was the case here with the Amarin case, where rarely have you seen the -- all the Supreme Court vote in the same way. So that was also a big win for us and a big win also was good for our reputation. That was a big win for obviously, for the whole generic industry.
Areb AL KURDI: In terms of the midterm guidance, we want to focus on currency. We want to deliver on the current year, and we want to keep investing in the R&D and fixing the foundation in terms of the -- our commercial capabilities. So no change.
Said Darwazah: Again, the drivers for growth, it's very simple. We always say it's not rocket science. Having the manufacturing machine being well established and having well-balanced lines, and we have worked very, very hard on that. We have given the supply chain. We said last year, we had 90 million of products, slow-moving inventory, which we don't want to repeat at all if we just do the normal 40 million of those would have been profit. So we want to make sure we have the repetition of that. So supply chain, as I said, we have been working externally on improving that, and we see big improvement. That will be very helpful. Having the safety stocks will be very helpful. And R&D, we are putting a lot of emphasis, a lot of effort there, both in terms of bringing in the right number of scientists and the right qualified scientists, which we have done. I believe we are very well there. Again, we will be seeing how fast the submissions will be accepted. All these things will be indicators of when and how fast the business will start growing fast again. And finally, is acquisitions. I think we have to be a bit more aggressive in acquisitions in Europe. I think there are a lot of opportunities for company acquisitions. The U.S. is still very difficult. But in Europe, there is a lot of opportunity for company acquisitions. And in the U.S.A, we should be more focused on product acquisitions to -- especially for the specialty part of the business, the promotion we have invested significantly in the promotion team. And TYZAVAN is just the first of those products ready to use. We want to also enhance that with other products. So these 3 things together will be very -- will be the engines of growth. That's for the U.S. and the injectable. And the MENA, we always underestimate the MENA, the team is doing simply superb there. I keep meeting people where and wherever I go in the end and say, "Oh, we're using this product of Hikma, it's amazing. We're using that product. They have been launching products in almost every category. And in oncology, we have become the #1 oncology in the MENA, both in terms of the products we manufacture and the products that we are licensing in. And so profile of the company there is really fantastic. And the MENA itself is growing very fast. Do you have any information how fast MENA is growing? The MENA is growing very fast. Saudi Arabia is growing very fast. Algeria is growing very fast. Egypt is growing very fast. So we are very well positioned to capitalize on that and to continue to grow in the MENA. The Rx, as we said before, we believe the engine for growth, obviously, will be R&D like epinephrine and products like that. But also the CMO, as we said, will be a major part of that business.
Guy Featherstone: And then we're going to go to the line before we take the second question.
Christian Glennie: Yes, Christian Glennie with Stifel. The first one would be actually come back to an earlier question around guidance. So to understand the weighting here. So you talked about on the revenue side, 2% to 4% full year. You're already at 4% for this half. You talked about it being slightly second half weighted. And similarly on operating profit, you did $405 million in the first half, you talk about it being broadly equal weighted across the year. But yes, you've maintained your guidance at the 2% to 4% on the top line and you retained your $720 million to $770 million. So what is it that kind of implies that there's -- you're well ahead of -- you're tracking well ahead of that. So is it a question of being prudent at this point, maybe in the context of what happened previously? Or is there something other things to be aware of, particularly in the second half?
Said Darwazah: Yes, I think we've been very clear that investment will continue. A lot of investment will continue. R&D investment in the second half will be higher, promotion investment in the MENA will be higher. We still have, as I said, a few more high-profile people that we need to add to the business. But we feel that all these things will -- that we need to do this, and they will sort of weigh down. I think, again, the business is doing well. Things are moving in the right direction. And that's why we feel fairly very strong to reiterate the guidance. And as I said before, we also feel very strong that the injectable engine will start to grow starting next year, we hope significantly.
Christian Glennie: Again, the follow-up would be sort of touch on capital allocation, particularly -- so 503B, you talked about divesting that in the last time we spoke, I think it sounded like there was quite a bit of interest. There was some sort of tangible thing. Any update on that process? And then as it relates to what you just said around opportunities that may be in Europe, what sort of things might be incremental to your business in Europe, just so we have an idea of what sort of things you're looking at?
Said Darwazah: In the past, we only looked at -- we were looking at increasing the -- let me again talk a little bit about Europe. So we have manufacturing, we have manufacturing in Portugal, and that's where we have been really investing the most, right, expanding continuously. Then we have manufacturing in Italy and Germany, which somehow we haven't been really investing in because we were always thinking that eventually, we will be closing those down and moving things over. The reality is we are finding out that both those sites are extremely important for Hikma. We had the full European team can visit us a little while ago. We sat with them for about a week, and they're extremely excited. They feel that there's a lot that -- more that we can do just by expanding manufacturing capacity, expanding out footprint. So we have taken decisions to go ahead and expand as fast as we can. And Germany and Italy -- update the equipment, some of the equipment is a bit older, to updating the equipment, expanding there. And we feel that, that by itself will help us grow significantly. We've also now said for the BD and M&A team, don't just look for injectables. Let's look for -- could be ophthalmics, could be ointment, could be some other things that we can add to expand because we feel Europe would be easier. It will not have the U.S., yes. in Europe. It's just there. So we believe that we -- and because we don't have other products, it's easier to do these things. That's why we -- and as I said in the U.S., it will be probably more of product acquisitions. But also, there are opportunities for doing things like animal health or ophthalmics or whatever also in the U.S.A. So that is the -- so Europe expansion will be a big driver of that. The demand is there. The profitability has been much, much better than we expected before. We see a lot of countries there adopt that not just prices that we want to look at, we look at prices, we look at quality. We look at the history of delivery, all these things that are coming into play. So -- and as I said, we are now the fourth largest company in injectables, and that's why we feel involved in that maybe we should be not just in injectables in Europe, but to go into other opportunities there.
Areb AL KURDI: To add to Said's also, a point, we are also expanding in different markets as well. So we're expanding in France and Spain. Those are still new opportunities, but they have really good growth. And 503B, we believe that when we started, we believe this was a good strategic fit. But we realized that this was a distraction for the rest of the team. Actually, it was by a small contributor. Actually, it was loss-making so far. So we thought we want really the injectables team to focus. This was part of the priorities that's Said had to review at the beginning of the year and look into the like what improvements we can make to the injectables process as a whole.
Said Darwazah: The compounding in the U.S., you really have 2 providers. You have the smaller pharmacies, and we have seen -- actually, the FDA has given them more authority to compound the peptides now and so on. Then you have the bigger companies. When we first started, the regulations were much less or at least FDA had not been very involved in regulating that market. But since we started, not just -- I mean, it just happened the timing, they have become much more active and the FDA is still trying to figure out how they're regulating. So you have seen a lot of warning letters go out. You have seen a lot of companies had to shut down or are not doing. And really the overall, let's say, big market of compounding hasn't really materialized. So we figured that we would be -- we would need to invest a lot of money. It would be very distracting. We thought we'd be better off concentrating on the businesses that we have, especially since we know that by investing more in our manufacturing capacities and bringing in, obviously, the -- that plant will be very important. So that's why we sort of said, let's give it up.
Areb AL KURDI: And in terms of execution, it's according to the plan. We are unwinding the business, and it's up for sale. And we have -- we see good interest as well in terms of selling the business to other parties.
Guy Featherstone: I'm just going to go to the line now. I think we have at least one question there. So I'll hand over to the operator, and then we can come back to the room.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] You have a question from the line of Kane Slutzkin from Deutsche.
Kane Slutzkin: Most has been answered. But just a quick follow-up on the injectable second half ramp. I'm just wondering how much of that is dependent on sort of TYZAVAN conversion versus sort of improvement in the broader underlying injectables business? And just on the CMO side, how is that pipeline sort of potential opportunities changed over the last maybe 6 months, particularly given growing interest in U.S. manufacturing capacity?
Said Darwazah: So again, as we said for TYZAVAN, there has been a lot of hospital buying groups adopting the product, taking it on instead of the older product. There was still a significant amount of supply of the ready-to-use vanco that, obviously, we had to -- the hospitals had to use. And that's why we say we feel -- first of all, we see the ramp-up is going up now month by month, but we are much more optimistic that towards the last quarter of this year, we will be seeing some big strides as the new hospitals, the new buying groups that have been converted, will start using the TYZAVAN. So again, I think by October, November, we will have a much clearer idea of how far and how big the product will be, but we obviously are extremely optimistic. We have invested significantly in the marketing and sales team there. I think a year ago, we were talking about 3 or 4 people. Now we're probably talking about over a dozen people working there. We have brought in a new head of marketing and promotion, Head of Commercial for that team. So we've done a lot to make things go in the right direction. And obviously, we feel very comfortable that we will achieve that. In terms of CMO for -- again, we have CMO for the 2 businesses for the sterile and for the Rx. The Rx, we said that there's a lot of -- there are a lot of demand actually for both businesses, there's a lot of demand. So it's really a question of our capacity and how fast we can be able to take in those. But we do have, I think, significant CMO for the injectables scheduled for the second half of this year.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Miles Dixon from Peel Hunt.
Miles Dixon: And sorry to labor the point and return to the guidance and the second half weighting, but there is a clear statement that says revenue and operating profit are weighted to the second half in the release. But I'm hearing -- certainly, I thought I heard said about the second half additional cost in R&D. What is it that I'm missing about the not even moving to the upper end of guidance on core operating profit for the full year?
Susan Ringdal: So -- I mean, I think it's best to take it segment by segment, to be honest. So for the Rx segment, we feel very comfortable that we should see a similar broadly similar performance in H2 versus H1. The branded is what we've said even if you go to the top end of the range for branded, that does mean that it is much lower in terms of revenue and operating profit in the second half of the year. And then that's offset by the increase in revenue and operating profit in the injectables. So on balance, it is - it's going to be for the group, I guess, a slightly lower second half, if you -- primarily because of the branded business and the very strong weighting of operating profit for branded in H1 versus H2.
Areb AL KURDI: Also, let's bear in mind on the MENA and branded, the situation MENA is unstable and there's a war going on there. So we prefer to be cautious as well on our projections throughout the H2.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] There are no further questions on the conference flow. I want to hand back over to the Hikma team.
Guy Featherstone: James.
James Gordon: James from Barclays. Maybe just a follow-on to your comment there. which would be -- I noted the comment about being cautious on H2 because of the situation in the MENA region. But so far, it sounds like at least for Hikma's business, it hasn't actually been a bad thing because actually, there's been some extra sales and less spending. So what is it that could be bad for Hikma's business as a result of this situation in the second half?
Said Darwazah: We said that there was a lot of -- usually when there is uncertainty, there's a lot of stockpiling. So stockpiling means that it will take time for it to be used. So the stockpiling has been made. So clearly, that kind of sales will not happen in the second half and then you need to reuse the stockpile. So that -- there's always the issue of currency stability. There's always the issue of supply chain disruption. It's again real uncertainty, uncertainty. It's tough to plan, tough to plan for that.
Areb AL KURDI: But we've been in this region for decades. And we -- I think we're really well positioned compared to all our competitors to capture any opportunities that. And we've seen this in H1. So...
Said Darwazah: I think the big issue is the stockpiling because governments were buying a lot of...
Areb AL KURDI: Plus bear in mind that we're going to also spend more in H2 for the future growth as well. So that's the balance.
James Gordon: But then can you quantify the stockpiling a bit so that we can try and model that properly?
Areb AL KURDI: As I said in the beginning, we saw a stockpiling at the beginning of the war in Q1, but we saw this normalized towards the end of H1. So I wouldn't really put so much weight on the stockpiling. But our tender business is always H1 weighted. And the historical trend of our sales are always H1 weighted.
Said Darwazah: We could. I mean, we could do better, of course. Obviously, we would like it to do that.
Giang Nguyen: Giang from Citi. And I have maybe 2 follow-up questions. One is a small follow-up point on the compounding business. Is there a timeline that you could communicate to us as to when this process you're looking to wrap up? And in relation to that, I think previously the guidance for Advair was to breakeven. And now with the compounding business being unwound, are we looking at better than breakeven for the year? So that's the first question. And then the second question is in terms of buyback, you've made significant progress. Would you rule out for the buyback this year? Or do you need any further board authorization if you want to continue for a new program?
Said Darwazah: The buyback is almost finished, the buyback. I think there's very little probably $20 million like that left. So $230 million have been. So the buyback is almost done. I think so far, we've acquired about 11 million shares in the buyback.
Areb AL KURDI: Close..
Said Darwazah: Close to 12 million or 11 million? so it's almost done. So I think for this year, that's that. Obviously, the issue of the buyback every 2 years, there is a revision. We take a look at that and see, but we'll take that when it comes. The compounding. We are in discussions for somebody to take it over, should be fairly soon.
Areb AL KURDI: It should be soon. We have classified this as held for sale in the financials, which means it should be -- we expect it to be sold within 12 months, but we expect this to be very much sooner.
Said Darwazah: We've never -- I mean it was always put along the others when it came to sales. It wasn't put under anything else. And...
Areb AL KURDI: On the others, you're right, I think we will slightly -- we'll make, but I wouldn't allocate so much profit, but we'll make profit in the other segment.
Christopher James Richardson: Chris Richardson from Jefferies. Just a quick 1 again on the branded margin. As you mentioned, there is quite a material fall off in the second half. And even though there was a similar H1 weighting at top line in 2025, the margins stayed relatively sort of even. How should we think about sort of mid-teens as an exit rate into 2027 if financial sort of S&M or sales and marketing expenses are staying relatively consistent H2 versus H1. How is that fall off happening? And how should we think about it progressing into the midterm?
Said Darwazah: Yes. Margins for the branded, as we continue to adopt more advanced products, the margins are better. But keep in mind that, most of those products are under license, and so you have to split. So I think -- I mean, the margins we've achieved this year, we are at, what, almost 30 -- they're quite high. And it would be -- I mean, clearly, we would like them to stay there. Do I think there's a scope for improving? I don't think so because as I said, the more products that you license, the margins are -- will be around that. But the business is growing, it's growing very nicely. So I believe that for the next few years, it will continue to outperform, and we'll continue to do extremely well.
Susan Ringdal: So mid- to high single-digit top line rate with mid-20s margin for that business is sustainable.
Zain Ebrahim: Zain Ebrahim, JPMorgan. First follow-up is just on price erosion. Just if you could comment on what level of price erosion you saw in the injectables business and in the Rx business in the first half and how we should expect that to develop going forward?
Said Darwazah: For the injectables, I think it was relatively -- yes, it was relatively -- I think the FDA is being a lot tougher. They are really ramping up their inspections and they are sort of enforcing new regulations and new requirements that is forcing everybody to be level-headed when it comes to pricing. So we haven't seen significant price erosion. I think for us, it's a question of ramping up our production capabilities. As I said, the demand is there. And we really, for the last few months, we really missed out on the opportunities, the shortage and so because we didn't have. So by doing that, we will -- the safety stocks will help us tremendously because they open opportunity. And it will open up the opportunity for us to do more CMO. Again, there is a lot of demand with CMO in the United States, obviously, but also in Portugal, there is demand. So by increasing capacity, it will help us. For the Rx, the oral part of the Rx, I think everybody is suffering. There is still erosion...
Susan Ringdal: It's probably mid-single digits, which is...
Said Darwazah: Our sales are becoming more and more inhalation, nasal and so on, which are suffering much less than solid dosage.
Zain Ebrahim: Makes sense. And then the other question was a follow-up on CMO. So you said that obviously Rx, I think there's going to be quite a significant contribution next year from the contract that you have, which sounds like it's ramping up well. But how should we think about injectable CMO next year, given that you had the headwind from losing one of the big contracts at the end of last year and now you have that capacity available, and you mentioned the strong demand. Could we see you potentially backfill some of that capacity as early as next year or might it take a bit longer depending on tech transfer times.
Said Darwazah: I think we'll be seeing some increase in CMO next year, but obviously, the major increase will come when we have the Bedford plant operation, which will be in '28.
Guy Featherstone: One last question.
Christian Glennie: Christian with Stifel. Maybe just check in on that large Rx CMO contract in terms of the status of that product, if you can say, and also a bit more sense for the 2027 potential tailwind or benefit from it. If you can articulate that a little bit more, that would be helpful.
Susan Ringdal: So the things are on track. We have done a lot of work in terms of the preparation in 2026. And as a result, we've generated good service revenues for that contract and that meant that we, as expected, we're seeing a step-up from 2025 in terms of the contribution from that contract. We do expect that in 2027, we'll have a full year of commercial production from that contract. So yes, I would say it's going well.
Areb AL KURDI: I'd like to come to the others, again, sorry, to your question, Christian. We expect -- we guided towards a breakeven and we still expect it to breakeven. The 503B was really a small contributor to that.
Guy Featherstone: Okay. Thank you very much.
Said Darwazah: Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
Areb AL KURDI: Thank you.