Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. AQST

Competitive advantage analysis · healthcare

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
26/100
Developing

About Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc.

Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. operates as a pharmaceutical company in the United States and internationally. It offers Libervant, a buccal soluble film formulation of diazepam for the treatment of seizures; Suboxone, a sublingual film formulation of buprenorphine and naloxone for the treatment of opioid dependence; Sympazan, an oral soluble film formulation of clobazam for the treatment of lennox-gastaut syndrome; KYNMOBI a … Full AQST analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Strong Liquidity Buffer Liquidity position is strong (score 0.68), providing operational cushion.

Key risks

  • ROIC Below WACC or Peers ROIC at 1.2th percentile suggests inefficient capital deployment.
  • Below-Peer Operating Efficiency Operating margin at 17.5th percentile indicates below-peer efficiency.

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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Pricing Power

Developing
27

Where AQST ranks in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic

Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. ranks #70 of 91 scored companies in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic by moat score — the top 77%. The widest moat in the group is Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) at 85/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near AQST in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic
# Company Moat score Rating
66 China Pharma Holdings, Inc. CPHI 29/100 Developing
67 Flora Growth Corp. FLGC 29/100 Developing
68 Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc AVDL 27/100 Developing
69 Citius Oncology, Inc. CTOR 27/100 Developing
70 Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. AQST 26/100 Developing
71 China SXT Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SXTC 26/100 Developing
72 Petros Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PTPI 25/100 Developing
73 Gelteq Limited GELS 23/100 Weak
74 BioAge Labs, Inc. BIOA 20/100 Weak

See every Pharma / Mature Biotech company ranked by moat score →

How AQST scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 26 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 16 · 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 36 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 12 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 42 · 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 26 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding AQST's moat

What is Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc.'s moat score?

Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. (AQST) scores 26 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #70 of 91 scored companies in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic, the top 77%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 90 companies in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic. Its strongest defense is Resilience (42/100) and its weakest is Capital Efficiency (12/100).

How does Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. compare with other Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic companies?

Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. ranks #70 of 91 scored companies in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic by moat score. The widest moat in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic is Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) at 85/100. The companies ranked closest are Citius Oncology, Inc. (CTOR) at 27 just above it and China SXT Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SXTC) at 26 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 90 companies in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Aquestive Therapeutics, 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 Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc.?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and AQST scores: Pricing Power (26), Cost Advantage (16), Customer Stickiness (36), Capital Efficiency (12), Resilience (42), Scale & Market Position (26). 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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