Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. ESPR

Competitive advantage analysis · healthcare

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
50/100
Developing

About Esperion Therapeutics, Inc.

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes medicines for the treatment of patients with elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in the United States. The company's marketed products include NEXLETOL (bempedoic acid) and NEXLIZET (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe) tablets that are oral, once-daily, non-statin medicines for the treatment of primary hyperlipidemia in adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or … Full ESPR analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Scale Supporting Profitability Profitability at scale is strong (score 0.75), demonstrating competitive advantages.
  • Cost Leadership Position Operating margin at 82.5th percentile with strong OpEx control demonstrates cost leadership.

Key risks

  • ROIC Below WACC or Peers ROIC at 13.4th percentile suggests inefficient capital deployment.
  • Revenue Volatility Signals Weak Stickiness Revenue volatility is high (stability score 0.24), 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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Pricing Power

Moderate
55

Where ESPR ranks in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. ranks #35 of 91 scored companies in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic by moat score — the top 38%. The widest moat in the group is Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) at 85/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near ESPR in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic
# Company Moat score Rating
31 Anika Therapeutics Inc. ANIK 54/100 Moderate
32 Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc. CPIX 54/100 Moderate
33 Dynavax Technologies Corporatio DVAX 52/100 Moderate
34 HUTCHMED (China) Limited HCM 51/100 Moderate
35 Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. ESPR 50/100 Developing
36 Rockwell Medical, Inc. RMTI 47/100 Developing
37 Evotec SE EVO 47/100 Developing
38 Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ETON 46/100 Developing
39 Cronos Group Inc. Common Share CRON 46/100 Developing

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

How ESPR scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 55 · 20% of the moat score

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

Cost Advantage

Score 69 · 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 39 · 15% of the moat score

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

Capital Efficiency

Score 16 · 18% of the moat score

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

Resilience

Score 47 · 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 80 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding ESPR's moat

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

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (ESPR) scores 50 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #35 of 91 scored companies in Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic, the top 38%. 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 Scale & Market Position (80/100) and its weakest is Capital Efficiency (16/100).

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

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. ranks #35 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 HUTCHMED (China) Limited (HCM) at 50 just above it and Rockwell Medical, Inc. (RMTI) at 47 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 Esperion 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 Esperion Therapeutics, Inc.?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and ESPR scores: Pricing Power (55), Cost Advantage (69), Customer Stickiness (39), Capital Efficiency (16), Resilience (47), Scale & Market Position (80). 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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