Fast-growing Australian healthcare company Medical Developments International Ltd (ASX: MVP) has enjoyed a busy year with a seemingly endless number of positive announcements.
Last month the company announced that it has signed a major new deal with CSIRO to conduct a research and development program into new manufacturing technologies for pharmaceutical products.
Thanks to this and the launch of its Penthrox non-opioid pain relief product in a number of markets across the world, Medical Developments International's share price is up by 32% so far in 2016.
Carrying on the trend of positive announcements this morning the company announced a deal with US pharmaceutical distributor McKesson Corp for the distribution of its "Space Chamber" range of anti-static respiratory devices throughout the United States.
The company's space chamber device is designed to deliver more medication to the lungs of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease sufferers than pMDI alone.
As well as signing the distribution deal, McKesson has placed an order for stock to be delivered by the end of December. CEO John Sharman had this to say on the deal:
"Our agreement with McKesson complements our agreements with AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health. Through these three companies we now have the relationships to wholesale into virtually every pharmacy and hospital in the USA. We expect to deliver our first shipment of our products to McKesson during the next few weeks."
Now that the distribution network is in place, the next step for the company will to be focus on getting the product onto the shelves of pharmacies across the country.
Management appears confident that its products beat the current competition on both quality and price.
I believe this is yet another huge step forward for the company and certainly goes some distance to justifying the rapid rise in its share price this year.
Whilst at 131x trailing earnings its shares may appear far more expensive that industry peers CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) and Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (ASX: MYX), analysts are expecting the company to grow earnings by 99% per annum for the next two years, at least according to CommSec.
With that level of growth I might just be able to justify the premium. Though please be aware that this future growth has been baked into the share price. Failure to deliver on market expectations would likely result in its share price being cut to size very quickly.
