Fresh off an IPO and launching a generic GLP-1, Apotex CEO Jeff Watson has even bigger plans

Circumstances don’t get much rockier than the ones Jeff Watson faced when he first took the top job at Apotex in early 2018. Canada’s biggest generic-drug maker was still reeling from the murder of its 75-year-old founder, Barry Sherman, and his wife, Honey. On top of that, CEO Jeremy Desai had resigned amid accusations of stealing trade secrets from a rival. The man who replaced him, Jack Kay, had just been pushed out by the founder’s heirs. But like the CFL offensive lineman he once was, Watson held the line. Over the next few years, he streamlined the business, then stepped aside in 2023 when it was bought by SK Capital Partners. That could have been the end of his roughly 20 years with Apotex. But earlier this year, it needed him again. As the company geared up for its IPO, Watson took over from the man who’d replaced him, Allan Oberman, who left for health reasons. Now, at 62, he’s leading a 52-year-old pharma giant finding its feet as a public company entering an unprecedented period of opportunity. And its GLP-1 drug is just the start. We spoke to him at his office in Toronto.

Eight years ago when you came on as CEO, you were thrust into a really difficult situation. How did you deal with it all?

I mean, it’s a scenario that you really can’t prepare for. On a positive note, I was the president of the global generics business, and the company was aligned in three lines—generics, biosimilars, and we had an API business (1) at the time. I was running about 85% of the business. Really, the strategy for me was moving time really close. Stabilizing the company, focusing on the mission that the founder had started—getting the customers aligned to the patient. At a personal level it was quite shocking. It was the biggest test, no question,

of my leadership career.

The Globe and Mail’s Andrew Willis recently said that after the tragedy, you “took an axe to operations,” and that had never been Barry Sherman’s plan. What did you base that decision on?

“Axe” would not have been my wording. There were parts of the company where a founder has the founder privilege of over-investing. The words I would use is, we were sizing the business appropriately. So our spend levels in certain areas were sized appropriately. There were other parts of the business that we divested. So we divested in five European markets. Without the founder, we had a different set of circumstances. We had a family office to report to. It was really about the independence of standing on your own two feet. And then how do you strengthen the foundation of the company for the ultimate transition that will happen down the road?

Were you trying to set up the company to be bought?

Yeah, the communication to me was really preparing the company for an eventual sale. Now, I think the family office knew that this was a 43-year-old company. It takes a while to do that. So we just started improving the fundamentals and foundation of the company.

In 2023, SK Capital bought Apotex. You didn’t remain as CEO. Was that your decision or theirs?

I think it was kind of mutual. When you run a process, you know that some buyers will show up with a management team or a leader in place. I certainly understood that they had a CEO in place. They were a really good buyer because in 2023, they were talking about building out this Canadian company as a healthcare champion. They were talking about their vision of having it listed on the TSX. So as I rolled off in ’23 as the CEO of Apotex, I stayed on the board. (2)

Eleven weeks before the IPO, you returned. (3) Running a public company is very different from running a privately held company. How did you prepare for all the legal and market demands?

It is certainly different. But we had a good interim step here with SK Capital stepping in. While I sat on the board, we were implementing policies that would resemble those of a board company. We were putting the proper committees in place, and by the time we went public, we had that infrastructure of governance in place. There’s no question there’s another step up from that. But I think we put the right amount of time in.

You just reported your first quarter and had your first earnings call. What was that like?

It was exciting for me, because it’s the demonstration of the strategy that we went out and talked to investors about, and now they’re invested in Apotex. We felt good about the quarter, and excited to get beyond it and move into the rest of the year.

You’re the first company to win approval for a generic weight-loss semaglutide. And that’s in part because Novo Nordisk forgot to pay a $250 maintenance fee on its Canadian patent in 2019. Who at Apotex figured that out?

Probably one of our greatest strengths, the DNA of the company, is our IP regulatory R&D. We have other examples in other key markets where we’ve found a pathway that might not be obvious or a missed opportunity from another potential competitor. Now it’s how quickly (4) we can execute against the opportunity.

You’re racing ahead of some competition. Health Canada is now reviewing at least six more submissions for generic GLP-1s. How will that affect revenue? (5)

When we look at our scenarios as we launch products, we expect a competitive landscape. We expected it to be out with competition now, for example, that has not showed up. So we find ourselves alone in the market, the only Canadian company launching the product. And we see this as an opportunity for Apotex. Because in the Canadian market, you certainly are rewarded for bringing products to market first. (6) We will have competition. We expect they will come. And we would expect that we will hold more than our fair share just by leading the market.

Novo Nordisk is also fighting to retain market share. What are you seeing from them?

They’ll have different strategies. We hear of coupons or cards. (7) We fully expect that companies like Novo Nordisk will try to defend their franchise, and we would fully anticipate that they’re working through best efforts to maintain their place in the business.

You’ve also achieved tentative U.S. approval for the first generic GLP-1 in the U.S. How did you manage to beat out the big guys like Viatris?

Our filing strategy, our development strategy. We work very closely with the FDA. They know the organization. So, yeah, we have tentative approval. Now, that patent term is into 2032. So it’s a much longer patent. But it’s important to have tentative approval and take our place, certainly as an indication of being ready to launch in future.

How big could the generic semaglutide opportunity be?

That’s the question we’re asked often. It’s a large opportunity. It’s still growing. Our product is indicated for Type-2 diabetes, and we know that certainly is a large market. We see the market continuing to grow. There are many clinical studies ongoing with semaglutide, the molecule. Which is kind of interesting, because typically when we come, the market formation from the brand is pretty much set. But this is one of those molecules with a market that continues to grow because other indications could come down the road. I think the best way a company can think about this opportunity—to serve its patients best and serve its customers best—is to make sure you have a supply chain that can deliver to the demand as it grows. That’s where we’re spending our time, making sure we have enough redundancy built into the supply chain.

Yours is the injectable form of the drug. When will you be able to get into pills?

You should expect, with any type of solid-dose technology that Apotex can participate in, that we’re looking at that closely. Right now, our focus is really on this injectable.

Let’s talk about trade and tariffs. In your first quarter, your U.S. segment generated about 43% of your revenue. In July, Trump threatened 100% tariffs in August 2028 and 200% in August 2029, and your stock dropped 8%. How concerned are you about tariffs?

We’re extremely focused on the policy. We’ve been extremely engaged in the process. We understand the policy challenge that the U.S. has or even Canada has. And it’s really about building out capabilities and kind of onshoring some of these capabilities. So the bigger question is API or key starting materials, and making sure that we have capabilities in market. In the U.S. market, for example, 90% of prescriptions are generic; 70% of those come from offshore supply chains. So we understand what they’re trying to solve for. And from an Apotex point of view, we’ve been in the market for 30 years. We’ve been a key supplier. These facilities here, they’re all FDA-approved sites. They all ship into the FDA. So we’re very much aligned to the U.S. market. We keep extremely on top of things. We’re certainly very much engaged with the administration at an association level. Our staff is very much involved. So I won’t say we’re not concerned. But we feel we’re actually part of the solution they’re trying to solve for. And it comes from the capabilities we have. We have API production right here in Brantford, Ont.—which is what both markets are very keen on right now.

Am I right that you don’t have any U.S. manufacturing facilities?

We do not at the moment.

Any plans to acquire any?

Not at this point.

There is a huge loss-of-exclusivity boom (8) coming over the next five years. Have you ever seen an LOE surge like this before?

I want to say it was 2012 to 2014. Every now and then, you run into these windows in the industry, and they use words like “patent cliff.” This is certainly a very fortuitous window for the company. We see these patents rolling off in both of our core markets, so it’s an opportunity for us. We’ll be launching 480 products over the next five years.

It feels like the IPO was timed to meet this moment.

I think so. The company is certainly ready to spread its wings. We came through a tremendous amount of transition. Into 2023, the company continued to strengthen itself and was ready for even more transformation. And it’s a new chapter. The timing has been great.

What drug categories offer the best potential? I know that in the U.S. you focus on nasal and oncology. What’s the rationale behind that?

In innovation, you really want to target certain therapeutic areas because you either have development opportunities or partnerships that you’re strong in and it allows you to do better there. Biosimilars is a category we’re very interested in. Right here in Canada we have a phenomenal pathway through what the government has set up to launch biosimilars. (9) So we look at those types of categories. On the branded molecules we’ll think more of therapeutic areas we want to work in.

The pharmaceutical industry puts a premium on R&D and innovation. In the world of generics, you’re essentially piggybacking on the innovation of others. What role does innovation play in your field?

Our innovation starts with our development around our generic portfolio. You have to innovate within that portfolio to try to get your products to the market sooner. If you’re trying to shorten patent life, you are continually innovating. It’s a different kind of innovation than what you described with the brands. It also comes in how we get our products to market—that intersection of the intellectual property teams, the regulatory groups and R&D, and how they work together. That for sure is innovation. And now we’re working on the other side of that spectrum of innovation with our Searchlight products, (10) where we have those branded products and innovation.

In generics, first-to-market rates are important, and yours are 76% in Canada, 75% in the U.S. How does that compare with your competitors?

I would say it puts us in the tier one category, and there’s probably a few in the tier one. I think not a lot. The first to market’s been part of Apotex’s DNA. (11) That is one of those carry-forwards. You know, the founder was always in a race to market. We have customers that would expect, when products are launching, that they would see us showing up there.

When Barry Sherman ran the company, he was known for a lot of litigation. He filed about 1,200 lawsuits against Canadian government agencies. What role does litigation play now?

I would say the industry in general, back in those earlier days, was more litigious. Right now IP litigation is how we think about the R&D, moving our R&D and our files forward. But we’re very measured on litigation. It’s a risk-based approach. But there’s no question to move certain product files along, get to a place in time on a patent where you need to, you have to have the ability to spend some money. (12) But it’s a much more disciplined approach in the business than it has been for some time.

This is your second time leading the company. What do you see as your time frame as CEO?

I have no time frame. When I made the decision to come back, I’d been on the board for a couple of years. I had an opportunity to think about what the next steps could be. So I knew coming back here wasn’t going to be about the old days. It was going to be about the new days. It was going to be about bringing the roots and the history and all of that but really moving it forward into a new future for the organization. I’m excited to be here. I want to continue to drive the business forward. It’s about the mission. When you’re in healthcare, it is about delivering products to the patient. It’s about thinking of people that have kids or friends that are on oncology products. That’s what energizes me now, so I have no end point.

FOOTNOTES

1. API stands for active pharmaceutical ingredients. At the time, Apotex’s global active pharmaceutical ingredients division was the largest API manufacturer in Canada.

2. After stepping down as CEO in 2023, Watson also sat on the boards of Illinois-based Woodstock Sterile Solutions; the Canadian long-term care provider CareRX; and the vertical farming company GoodLeaf Farms.

3. Watson took over as interim CEO in October 2025 and became full-time CEO in March. The IPO was in June.

4. Apotex has yet to set a launch date for its generic semaglutide, called Sevmia.

5. Apotex won’t reveal revenue targets for its GLP-1 drugs, but Watson says no one product will drive more than 5% of revenue.

6. In Canada, generic prices are set at a percentage of the cost of a brand-name drug according to how many manufacturers enter the market. One manufacturer, 75% of the brand-name price; two manufacturers, 50%; three or more, 25%.

7. Pharma companies often issue brand coupon cards, or co-pay cards, to help cover the extra cost of brand-name drugs over generics.

8. From 2026 to 2030, the number of drugs losing exclusivity in the U.S. will rise by 168%—423 compared to 158 in the previous five years. In Canada, 207 drugs will lose exclusivity, compared to 136.

9. Biosimilars are close copies of medications made from living organisms that go through extensive clinical trials. In Canada, physicians are generally required to switch patients covered by public formularies to a biosimilar within six months of its launch and are encouraged to prescribe them to new patients.

10. Apotex’s $500-million acquisition of Searchlight added about 60 brand-name products, including in women’s health, dermatology and pain management.

11. Apotex was first to market for generic GLP-1 despite being second to get approval—Dr. Reddy’s, based in India, reported quality issues with one of its product’s components.

12. In Q1, it spent $6 million on litigation settlements awards and associated legal fees related to cases involving other pharmaceutical companies, compared to $3.4 million over the same period in 2025.