NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Novartis AG (NVS) - Get Report shares closed trading down $1.51% to $97.46 on Friday despite the company's white blood cell-boosting treatment Zarxio receiving FDA approval as the first ever 'biosimilar' drug treatment in the U.S.

Biosimilar drugs, which have been legal in Europe for nine years, are lower-cost copies of complex drugs that based on European data tend to sell at a discount between 20% and 30% of the original biotech brand's price, according to Reuters.

Zarxio contains the same active ingredient as Amgen's (AMGN) - Get Report Neupogen white blood cell treatment which logged $1.2 billion in sales worldwide last year. Amgen's shares closed trading down 2.96% to $154.88 today following the FDA's announcement.

Analysts at Barclays said in a note today that while the FDA's decision could affect the wider market, today's decision had widely been expected already and that Neupogen already faces competition.

"That said, this news was expected, and Neupogen already faces competition and sales erosion from Teva's Granix (which though approved under the BLA pathway and technically a branded product, is essentially a biosimilar)," said analysts. "Nevertheless, we believe it's a matter of when, not if, the product will launch, and anticipate continued erosion of Neupogen over the foreseeable future."

TheStreet Ratings team rates NOVARTIS AG as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate NOVARTIS AG (NVS) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, reasonable valuation levels, good cash flow from operations and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The stock has not only risen over the past year, it has done so at a faster pace than the S&P 500, reflecting the earnings growth and other positive factors similar to those we have cited here. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.
• NOVARTIS AG has improved earnings per share by 23.4% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, NOVARTIS AG increased its bottom line by earning $4.32 versus $3.72 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($5.25 versus $4.32).
• Net operating cash flow has increased to $5,205.00 million or 16.96% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -17.72%.
• NVS's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.29 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Although the company had a strong debt-to-equity ratio, its quick ratio of 0.88 is somewhat weak and could be cause for future problems.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: NVS Ratings Report