Pharma shares in focus; Lupin, Cipla, Dr Reddys up over 1%

Centre went about in a haphazard manner while banning the 344 FDCs, says High Court

Shares of pharmaceutical companies were in focus, gaining by up to 3% in an otherwise range-bound market after the Delhi High Court set aside the Centre’s decision to ban 344 fixed dose combination (FDC) medicines.

Lupin, Dr Reddys Laboratories, Cadila Healthcare, Cipla, Aurobindo Pharma, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals from the Nifty Pharma index were up between 1% and 2% on the NSE.

Dishman Pharmaceutical & Industries, Granules India, Neuland Laboratories, Novartis, Indoco Remedies, Alembic, Sun Pharma Advanced Research and SMS Pharma were among non-index stocks up more than 2% each.

At 12:00 PM; Nifty Pharma index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 0.79% as compared to 0.14% decline on the benchmark Nifty50 index.

"Centre went about in a haphazard manner while banning the 344 FDCs," said the High Court in a major relief to pharma companies.

Centre took the decision without following procedure prescribed under the statute, HC added.

The High Court had received 454 pleas from pharma majors.

Meanwhile, Lupin was up 2.2% at Rs 1,538 on the NSE in intra-day trade after the company announced an expansion of their partnership in India with the launch of Eglucent, a new brand of Lilly's rapid-acting insulin analog Lispro.

According to the agreement, Lupin will market and sell Eglucent through its own specialty field force while Lilly will be responsible for manufacturing and import. Lilly will continue to sell Lispro under the brand name Humalog through its existing channels. Lupin had earlier collaborated with Lilly (July, 2011) to promote and distribute Lilly's Huminsulin range of products in India and Nepal.

Eglucent is indicated for the treatment of patients with diabetes mellitus. It is an injectable medication designed to improve blood sugar control in patients with Type 1 and 2 diabetes.