Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel therapeutic compounds to treat diseases with high unmet needs. It offers EMPAVELI for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria; and SYFOVRE for treating geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy (GA). The company also develops EMPAVELI to treat C3 glomerulopathy and …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Cost Leadership PositionOperating margin at 87.7th percentile with strong OpEx control demonstrates cost leadership.
ROIC Sustainably Above PeersROIC at 83.1th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
Key risks
Revenue Volatility Signals Weak StickinessRevenue volatility is high (stability score 0.38), suggesting weak customer stickiness.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ranks #53 of 713
scored companies in Biotechnology by moat score — the top 7%.
The widest moat in the group is Royalty Pharma plc (RPRX)
at 85/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near APLS in Biotechnology
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 84
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 68
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 61
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 60
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 71
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
What is Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s moat score?
Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (APLS) scores 68 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #53 of 713 scored companies in Biotechnology, the top 7%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 712 companies in Biotechnology. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (84/100) and its weakest is Resilience (60/100).
How does Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. compare with other Biotechnology companies?
Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ranks #53 of 713 scored companies in Biotechnology by moat score. The widest moat in Biotechnology is Royalty Pharma plc (RPRX) at 85/100. The companies ranked closest are Stoke Therapeutics, Inc. (STOK) at 68 just above it and Nkarta, Inc. (NKTX) at 67 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 712 companies in Biotechnology. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and APLS scores: Pricing Power (65), Cost Advantage (84), Customer Stickiness (68), Capital Efficiency (61), Resilience (60), Scale & Market Position (71). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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