Ajanta Pharma gains after revoking two Allergan composition patents

Ajanta Pharma rose 2.85% to Rs 897.55 at 9:45 IST on BSE after the company said it has been successful in its challenge to revoke patents held by Allergan Inc for two drugs used for eye treatment in India.

The company made the announcement on Friday, 9 August 2013.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 55.32 points, or 0.29%, to 18,844.66.

On BSE, 5,133 shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 44,446 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 920 and a low of Rs 890 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,177 on 19 July 2013. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 353.30 on 12 November 2012.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 8 August 2013, sliding 11.24% compared with the Sensex's 2.77% fall. The scrip had, however, outperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 5.55% as against Sensex's 6.01% fall.

The small-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 11.72 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5.

Ajanta Pharma said it was successful in revoking two composition patents of Allergan Inc. Ajanta had applied for revocation of both the patents under independent application in 2011 on grounds of obviousness, not an invention, not patentable, insufficiency and non-disclosure under section 8 of the patents act (2005) with Intellectual Property Apllelate Tribunal (IPAB). The combination patent decision has emerged as a landmark decision at IPAB.

Both the patents namely IN 212695 and IN 219504 were on medicines for eye related treatments and were granted by the Kolkata Patent Office in December 2007 and May 2008 respectively. Ajanta filed revocation petitions with IPAB for both the patents believing that both these patents are invalid and unenforceable under IPA, 1970 and that these patents were granted on false representation. The IPAB, which has been constituted by the Central Government in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to hear appeals against the decisions of the Registrar/Controller from the Patents & Trademark Offices and all appeals from various high courts, rightly revoked both these patents on grounds of obviousness and breach of section (8) of IPA, 1970, as put forward by Ajanta.

Ajanta has already been successful selling BIMAT T and BIDIN LS TM in Indian market and will continue to sell backed by this favourable verdict, company said in a statement.

Net profit of Ajanta Pharma rose 66.19% to Rs 32.54 crore on 26.10% rise in net sales to Rs 215.39 crore in Q1 June 2013 over Q1 June 2012.

Ajanta Pharma is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in development, manufacture and marketing of quality finished dosages in domestic and international markets.

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