Natco Pharma jumps after tie up with Gilead on hepatitis C drugs

Natco Pharma rose 3.53% to Rs 1,417 at 12:54 IST on BSE after the company said it signed a nonexclusive licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences, to manufacture and sell generic versions of its chronic hepatitis C medicines.

The announcement was made during trading hours today, 2 March 2015.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 3.13 points, or 0.01%, to 29,358.37.

On BSE, so far 8,231 shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 8,936 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 1,441.05 and a low of Rs 1,378.95 so far during the day. The stock hit a record high of Rs 1,586.25 on 19 January 2015. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 655.55 on 1 April 2014.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 28 February 2015, rising 0.53% compared with 0.67% fall in the Sensex. The scrip had, however, underperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 0.71% as against Sensex's 2.33% rise.

The mid-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 33.23 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Natco Pharma said the medicines include sofosbuvir, ledipasvir/sofosbuvir and the investigational NS5A inhibitor GS-5816, which is being evaluated in Phase 3 clinical studies as part of a single tablet regimen that combines the compound and sofosbuvir for the treatment of all six genotypes of hepatitis C.

This agreement allows Natco to expand access to these chronic hepatitis C medicines in 91 developing countries. Under the license, Natco can set its own price for the generic products it produces, paying a royalty on sales to Gilead to support product registrations, medical education and training, safety monitoring and other essential business activities, the company said in a statement.

Net profit of Natco Pharma declined 52.01% to Rs 14.34 crore on 0.79% decline in net sales to Rs 187.90 crore in Q3 December 2014 over Q3 December 2013.

Natco Pharma manufactures generic dosage forms, bulk actives and intermediates for the Indian and international markets.

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