Alpharma, Inc. (ALO) is a specialty pharmaceutical company with global operations in human and animal pharmaceuticals. Alpharma does business in more than 80 countries. The company struggled in 2004, based on continuing problems from manufacturing issues raised by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2003. Alpharma has since worked through the bulk of these problems, regaining FDA approval to begin solid dose and liquid formulation manufacturing. With its generic business out of the woods, the company decided it was time to divest these operations and focus more on growing its specialty pharmaceutical business. In December 2005, Alpharma concluded the sale of its U.S. and international generics business to Actavis Group for $810 million in cash. Soon thereafter, Alpharma sold ParMed Pharmaceuticals, its U.S. pharmaceutical distribution business, to Cardinal Health Inc. for $40.1 million in cash. Following the divestiture of its generic business, the company is now conducting its business through three main segments: Pharmaceuticals (formerly known as Branded Pharmaceuticals), Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), and Animal Health. The API segment develops, manufactures, and markets a range of fermentation-based active pharmaceutical ingredients that are used, primarily by third parties, in the manufacture of finished-dose pharmaceutical products.

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