From rising prescriptions to the pharma sales force back on the field with full vigour and companies finally finding their feet with the digital marketing strategies - Indian drug makers have shown that medicine sales is certainly a sunshine sector.
The company has developed detailed logistical plans and tools to support effective vaccine transport, storage, and temperature monitoring. Sohini Das and Ruchika Chitravanshi report.
Assuming that the value of LIC's holding has risen in line with the markets, its portfolio size today could be around $86 billion, higher than the previous record of $84 billion in March 2018.
Each state has its own weak areas that need attention. Some states have already identified the gaps and sought the Centre's help. Vinay Umarji, Ishita Ayan Dutt, Samreen Ahmad and Sohini Das report.
The government plans to immunise 30 million people in the first phase, starting February, and by July, the target is to vaccinate 250 million people, reports Sohini Das.
The company has a pipeline of viral vaccines including Zika, dengue, varicella, as well as a potential Covid-19 inoculation.
The total default is said to be in excess of Rs 3,000 crore - making this the largest default by a broker.
Maximum promoter holding to be eligible for reclassification to be raised from 10% to 15%; waiting time to be brought down to one month from three.
'SII has started stockpiling the vaccine and now has roughly 40 million doses ready. It is using some of the capacities it had for under development products for the COVID-19 vaccine and by January we will have a capacity to make 100 million doses per month and a stockpile of 200 million doses.'
The move will increase working capital requirement for brokers, raise the work load on the system and will leave little room for contingencies.
Siemens Healthineers, one of the largest manufacturers of made-in-India CT scanners, has sold 80-100 such machines in the last 45 days. The medical technology firm typically sells 250 machines in a year.
The first vaccine candidate will be an intra-muscular one, followed by intra-dermal and nasal ones, depending on test results.
While Airtel has hiked the limit to 100 per cent in principle, the company needs to address some issues on overseas investment limits in subsidiaries, before the changes come into effect. Until then, the cap on foreign ownership will remain at 49 per cent under the automatic route.
Security breach came days after the firm got approval to conduct trials for Covid-19 vaccine candidate Sputnik V.
The markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), recently introduced fresh guidelines to determine the place of a mutual fund (MF) on its riskometer tool.
While there has been no commitment from the government on the procurement of vaccines, initial volumes, or distribution plans, there is a likelihood that the low interest loans may be made available to these players only when the time to scale up manufacturing arises.
Adjuvants may be added to a vaccine to produce more antibodies and longer lasting immunity thus minimising the dose of antigen needed.
In India, itolizumab, known by the brand name Alzumab, has been priced at Rs 8,000 per vial. Most patients require four vials for Covid-19 treatment, taking the cost of the therapy to Rs 32,000.
The Indian vaccine industry largely feels there are two ways in which vaccine innovation can be spurred - one, get a high price for the product and two, have the government buy a few hundred million doses of the product at a certain price.
The NSE held 25 to 100 per cent stakes in these entities through its subsidiary NSE Investments as of September.
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