Ahmedabad-headquartered Zydus Lifesciences posted a 17 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) rise in revenue from operations to Rs 6,123 crore, while the net profit increased by 38 per cent to Rs 1,258.6 crore aided by consistent performance in the US and India formulations businesses.
The European Union's (EU's) offer to slash tariffs on 97.5 per cent of Indian chemical exports to zero is set to give India's pharmaceutical and medical device firms preferential access to the European markets.
'We are looking at what kind of products, diagnostics or other solutions we can offer to become a well-rounded player in a particular disease area globally.'
Acquisition of popular brands such as Complan, Glucon D, Nycil and Sampriti Ghee from Heinz India would be a part of the deal, Cadila Healthcare said in a filing to BSE.
The court said a social media influencer is expected not to try to play the role of a professional without any backing to substantiate what is being shared by them.
ZyCoV-D is a three-dose vaccine administered intradermally.
Indian drugmakers supply 47 per cent of the generic medicine requirements in the US, and tariffs would have increased prices in the US domestic market for patients, who are already dealing with drug shortages.
Analysts are expecting pharmaceutical companies to post sales growth of 10-11 per cent in the second quarter this financial year while the Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) margins are anticipated to improve by about 110 basis points. Ebitda improvement will be led by lower input costs because prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are 5-15 per cent lower year-on-year (Y-o-Y). Axis Capital said sales growth would be around 10 per cent, of which growth in the India market would be 11 per cent or so.
Indian pharmaceutical companies may have units abroad as part of "distributed manufacturing" across various locations, according to industry veterans. This may come about over the next five to 10 years.
This is the world's first DNA-based vaccine against the coronavirus, and this three-dose vaccine when injected produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response, which plays a vital role in protection from the disease as well as viral clearance
Drug firm Zydus Cadila on Thursday said it has applied for emergency use authorisation (EUA) with the Indian drug regulator for its three-dose COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D, and plans to manufacture 10-12 crore doses annually.
So far, no other vaccine has been approved globally for children below 12 years. Sohini Das reports.
As the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) is set to crack down on companies to ensure compliance with printing QR codes on top-selling brands to curb counterfeiting, top pharma companies say they welcome the regulator's mandate and that they are on track. They also view it as a positive step to ensure patient safety. Sheetal Arora, CEO of Mankind Pharmaceuticals, which has already adopted QR codes in 20 of their products, stated: "We strongly advocate for mandatory implementation of barcodes and QR codes on medicines as this initiative will not only protect patients but also strengthen the integrity of our healthcare system by reducing circulation of counterfeit drugs."
Of the 16 FMCG firms, 12 companies saw an increase in their respective foreign institutional investors holding in three months ended September 2013 over the year-ago period, while the remaining four witnessed a decline in FIIs stake, according to a report by A C Choksi Share Brokers.
Renewed inflationary pressures, led by a spike in prices of vegetables and cereals, have cast a spell on the equity markets in the past month. The BSE Sensex and Nifty50 have declined up to 2 per cent each during the period, clipping the 13 per cent rally from the March lows, shows data from ACE Equity. Investors typically consider shares of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies as defensive bets, putting their weight behind them in a falling market.
Higher inflation has again become a matter of concern for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. After prices of commodities like sugar and wheat moved higher and stabilised at those levels, the crude oil too surged, adding to FMCG firms' worries. Besides, a dry spell in August in the ongoing monsoon season impacted rural demand.
Irregular rainfall and a pick-up in commodity costs are expected to weigh on the demand and margins of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. Most companies reported a sharp expansion in gross margins in the April-June quarter (first quarter, or Q1) of 2023-24 (FY24), given the lower prices of key raw materials and earlier price hikes. Furthermore, there were expectations that cost savings being passed on could reflect in volume growth going forward. However, these hopes could be dashed if demand recovery, especially in the rural segment, stalls, and gains on the raw material front start to recede.
Zydus Wellness looks for a wider berth in the country's burgeoning beauty market, redesigns and rebrands its flagship brand
To become part of the consumer's monthly shopping cart, Sugar Free has launched new formats and variants and waged war against online venom.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services whose director is the lottery magnate Santiago Martin is the top purchaser of electoral bonds having purchased bonds worth Rs 1,368, according to data uploaded by the Election Commission of India on its website on Thursday.
As the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 takes centrestage, vaccine makers in India are of the view that scaling up the existing vaccines to make them more effective is possible.
An acute drug shortage in the US and stable pricing along with product launches are likely to boost revenues of India's pharmaceutical companies during the first quarter of this financial year, analysts said. Most brokerages estimate a top line growth of around 14-15 per cent, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) growth of 24-30 per cent for Q1 of FY24. Hospitals are, however, likely to report lower occupancy rates, and diagnostics companies may witness an impact from delayed monsoon.
FIIs have offloaded shares of Bajaj Corp, Nestle, Jyothy Laboratories and Britannia.
Sohini Das chats with MD of Zydus Cadila Healthcare Pankaj R Patel & his son Sharvil Patel.
The Indian IT services sector is scrambling to retain talent since digitisation-led transformation has increased the demand for a digitally skilled workforce. As a result, the pull for jobs for tech professionals is also coming from non-IT sectors, leading to higher attrition among IT companies. The average number of tech jobs from non-IT sectors has seen a 41 per cent uptick in March-May'21 versus March-May'19, according to data from Naukri.com.
Zydus plans to initiate the clinical trials of ZyCoV-D in July 2020 across multiple sites in India. In animal studies the vaccine was found to elicit a strong immune response in multiple animal species like mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits.
While Covishield supplies would meet the target of 500 mn doses between August and December, it looks like Covaxin would miss the target of 400 mn unless the partner sites of Bharat Biotech ramp up very rapidly, reports Sohini Das.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation said while the rights, safety, and well-being of trial subjects were of paramount importance, protocol amendment, deviation or modification might be necessary in some cases owing to unavoidable circumstances.
The Pune-based vaccine major has entered into a collaboration with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine.
These vaccines are Sputnik V vaccine (in collaboration with Dr Reddy's), Johnson & Johnson vaccine (in collaboration with Biological E), Novavax vaccine (in collaboration with Serum India), Zydus Cadila's vaccine, and Bharat Biotech's Intranasal Vaccine.
The quantity of Covid vaccines to be exported will be decided by the government every month to ensure there is no dearth of domestic availability.
Cautioning that the country is passing through a phase when there are festivals and potential gatherings, he said this is a critical phase as the virus can spread again.
Healthcare and frontline workers and citizens above 60 years of age with comorbidities would be administered the third dose of the same vaccine they had been given before.
Biological E has received approval for conducting phase II/III human clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccine candidate Corbevax on children above five years and adolescents, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said on Friday.
To address the shortage of COVID-19 jabs in the country, the government is exploring the possibility of boosting production of vaccines, including identifying manufacturing sites for indigenously developed Covaxin outside India, sources said.
The vaccine candidate, ZyCoV-D, showed a "strong immune response" in animal studies, and the antibodies produced were able to completely neutralise the wild type virus, Zydus said. The 12 institutes have been asked by the ICMR to fast track clinical trials of the vaccine as it is being considered as one of the top priority projects which are being monitored at the topmost level of the government.
A longer shelf life is critical, given many makers have started manufacturing vaccines and stockpiling them, so as to make them available in the market immediately after approval, reports Sohini Das.
'Just put a patch on your arm and the vaccine can be absorbed by the body.'
'Antibodies remain in the blood for at least seven to nine months.'
Three COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including two indigenous ones, are in different phases of development in India.