South African pharma giant gets R500 million win

Aspen Pharmacare has secured a significant win in its contractual dispute over mRNA products, which will see the case’s counterparty pay R500 million to the South African pharma giant.

This contractual dispute contributed to the company’s R1 billion loss in its 2025 financial year, as it significantly affected Aspen’s earnings from its manufacturing division.

Aspen is Africa’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer and is valued at just under R47 billion on the JSE. It owns and operates facilities in Gqeberha and France, where it manufactures finished dose products for third parties.

On Friday, 31 October, the company confirmed that the dispute had been settled, with the counterparty ordered to pay Aspen €25 million (around R500 million) before 1 December 2025.

Shareholders were first made aware of this dispute on 4 April 2025, when Aspen warned that risks had arisen relating to its manufacturing divisions, including a material contractual dispute.

The company has yet to provide more detailed information about the case, citing contractual confidentiality.

However, Aspen explained that it relates to a manufacturing and technology agreement with a contract manufacturing customer for mRNA products.

On 23 April, the company warned shareholders that this dispute would have a significant impact on Aspen’s 2025 results, including a R2 billion EBITDA hit and an impairment of R770 million.

Investors were displeased with the lack of details the company could provide, with some analysts saying it raised doubts about Aspen’s management team.

Shareholders were particularly concerned that this dispute related to Aspen’s manufacturing division, which the company has invested heavily in and should be its primary growth driver.

In addition, the dispute put Aspen at risk of losing access to the mRNA intellectual property (IP), which would cause Aspen to experience a R770 million impairment loss.

Aspen CEO Stephen Saad has said Aspen took a bet on mRNA technology and that there was extensive investment in its manufacturing. 

The company started commercial production of mRNA filling and packing in the second half of its 2024 financial year, with hopes that its big bet would pay off.

However, with the potential loss of mRNA IP, Aspen risked not being able to manufacture mRNA vaccines at all.

These concerns led to a selloff in Aspen shares, with the company’s share price plummeting by over 30% on the day of this announcement.

On 3 September, Aspen’s 2025 results partially confirmed investors’ fears, with the company swinging to a substantial R1 billion loss.

This was despite a strong performance from the group’s core pharma business, Commercial Pharmaceuticals, which comprises more than 70% of the group’s revenue.

One of the biggest blows to Aspen’s operations in 2025 was this ongoing contract dispute, which saw the company earning far less from its manufacturing business over the period compared to 2024.

Aspen saw significant impairments over the 2025 financial year, a total of R4.1 billion, which includes a tax impact, the mRNA dispute and some underperforming regions.

Between 3 September and 30 October, Aspen’s share price declined by over 6%.

However, on 31 October, the company confirmed that the dispute had been settled, with Aspen set to get a R500 million windfall. Aspen did not provide any further details in its announcement.