Alvogen

Alvogen is an Icelandic pharmaceutical company that makes and sells generic drugs. Founder and CEO Robert Wessman is deciding whether to take on private equity investors willing to buy out all shareholders, merge with a large and publicly-traded US pharmaceutical company, or continue to operate independently. Wessman took on a significant amount of risk in starting Alvogen, and the case offers a chance to discuss risk evaluation and acceptable levels of risk. It also provides an example of a company that had to harness global opportunities to succeed and examines how it built globalization into its business model from the very beginning.