Pharmaceutical patents are just over a fourth of all patents granted in the country, but domestic drug makers account for almost all post-grant patent opposition filed, official data reveals.
ICICI Bank was the top loser after the private lender reported sharp drop in Q4 net.
Impact of the slowdown is most visible among promoter/owner-CEOs
ICICI Bank, ONGC and Tata Motors contribute to nearly 50% gain seen on the Nifty.
As record stock market rally continues, the value of shares directly owned by next-generation business leaders at 20 major corporate houses has soared over 18 per cent to Rs 17,000 crore.
TCS, Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports and Cipla were the top gainers on BSE Sensex while Coal India, GAIL, Dr Reddy's and Infosys lost the most on the index.
The Sensex gained 7 points to close at an all-time high of 8060.
Indian drug companies have cornered an overwhelming majority of drug approvals under the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
After surging above the 7,800 mark, the Sensex finally closed at 7,756.
Among other stocks, IT firm Mphasis today reported a 15.30% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 184.72 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2015.
The Sensex gained 91 points to close at an all-time high of 7,860.
An Indian pharmaceutical company is gearing up to sell a cheap version of the leading patented antiviral flu drug Tamiflu to emerging economies, in a move that will pitch intellectual property rights against affordable access to medicines.
India plans to increase stockpiles of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu or its generic version by 10-fold, from one million to 10 million currently, Bloomberg reported, citing Vineet Choudhary, joint secretary, Ministry of Health.
The Sensex gained 41 points to hit a new high of 7,797.
The voluntary move comes a little more than a year after the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, the central authority that approves new drugs for marketing, had asked the drug makers to withdraw the 'combination drugs' as they are 'unnecessary' and may pose health hazards. The Drugs Controller General of India had banned 294 combination drugs sold under nearly 1,053 brand names from the market in June 2007.
The NSE 50-share after moving between 10,309.85 and 10,261.50 on alternate bouts of selling and buying, finished at 10,298.75, with paltry gains of 15.15 points, or 0.15 per cent.
Bharti Airtel , RCom and Tata Communications ended down between 0.1-1%.
ABRPL is working on developing drugs for anaemia, cancer and arthritis, said Bruce Murdoch, chief business officer, Avesthagen. "We are targeting high-end products that are going off-patent and are not working on popular soon-to-be off-patent biotech molecules. We should be able to bring a couple of molecules into the commercialisation stage next year," he said.
The country had the third-largest number of people living with disease.
Ranbaxy, Cipla and other Indian drug makers are helping US retailer Wal-Mart sell drugs at low cost and boost revenue.
The NSE Nifty is trading at 6,001, up 40 points. HDFC has advanced 1.6% to Rs 2,917.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 112 points at 28,555 and the 50-share Nifty closed 24 points higher at 8,561 after hitting a record high of 8,626.95.
Making the things worse, those hitting their record low share prices included big names like Reliance Power, Cipla, Ranbaxy, Ambuja Cement, Hindalco, Indian Hotels, Jaiprakash Associates, Jet Airways, Suzlon Energy and Idea Cellular. Realty majors DLF Ltd, Unitech, Parsvnath, Sobha Developers, Omaxe and Puravankara also plunged to their all-time lows.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw allowed 454 petitions moved by various pharma and healthcare majors, like Pfizer, Glenmark, Procter and Gamble and Cipla, challenging the government's March 10 notification banning the FDCs, saying the decision was taken by the Centre without following procedure prescribed in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
Voveran, Novartis India's flagship pain killer medicine, has become the largest selling domestic drug with sales of more than Rs 11 crore (Rs 110 million) in March 2008, displacing Pfizer India's cough and cold syrup Corex, which had sales of Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million). Cipla, on the other hand, maintained its leadership position as the largest domestic pharmaceutical company edging out Ranbaxy Laboratories with a market share of 5.24 per cent.
These brands belong to about 320 drugs of leading Indian pharmaceutical companies. The Drug Controller General of India's (DCGI's) office feels that these have been launched without its approval.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers readers' queries on stocks they own or want to buy. Here are his replies to some of the 'buy, sell, hold, avoid or exit?' e-mails that we have received.
AvestaBiotherapeutic and Research (ABRPL) has signed a pact with Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation to develop biosimilar (similar biological products) products.
Retail sales of Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cipla, Nicholas Piramal, Lupin and other drug makers have jumped by over 10 per cent in the domestic market despite the sales of generics or copycat versions of patented drugs falling in leading global markets such as the US and Europe.
Currency played an important role in Q2, with US dollar, Japanese yen and euro appreciating vis-a-vis the Indian rupee, while the Brazilian real, South African rand and Russian ruble depreciating against rupee.
Hetero is the only Indian partner of multinational drug major Roche Scientific for the manufacture and supply of the latter's patented drug, Tamilflu in developing countries.
The move brings an additional 15 per cent of the retail medicine market worth over Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) under direct price control. All domestic companies, including drug majors like Ranbaxy, Cipla, Lupin and Dr Reddy's, have syrups and tonics in their product portfolio.
The markets opened 47 points higher at 7,682.
The drugs manufacturing industry is on a state of alert following two landmark developments over a cancer treatment medicine.
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