Pharmaceuticals stocks rallied on Monday after Merck raised hopes globally for reducing hospitalizations or deaths by as much as 50%. Nifty Pharma has reached a new 52-week high of 14,938.25 on broad-based purchases across all stocks. Nifty Pharma was racing toward the 15,000 mark.
At around 1.06pm, Nifty Pharma was trading 14,867.90 higher at 280.25 points or 1.92%. In the index, 16 scripts advanced while 4 decreased.
Divis Lab was the main winner with an increase of 8.4% after hitting a new 52-week high of Rs5,315.50 per piece. In addition, Abbot India continued with a gain close to 4.4% after hitting a new high of Rs 23,371.95 a piece earlier today.
Gland Pharma jumped 3.7%, while Natco Pharma, Dr Reddy's Lab, Aurobindo Pharma and Torrent Pharma and Cadila Healthcare each increased more than 2%.
Glenmark rose 1.5%, while Strides Pharma advanced 1.05%.
Laurus Lab increased 0.9%, while Sun Pharma and Pfizer advanced 0.8% each. Biocon is listed flat.
On the contrary, Cipla was the main bear with a fall of 1.5%, followed by IPCA Lab with a fall of almost 1%. Lupine and Alkem Lab traded slightly lower.
Germany-based Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics have announced that molnupiravir, an investigational oral antiviral drug, significantly reduced the risk of hospitalization or death in a planned interim phase trial analysis. 3 MOVe-OUT in non-hospitalized adult at-risk patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.
In a statement last week, Merck noted that in the interim analysis, molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by approximately 50%.
Merck plans to apply for Emergency Use Authorization (US) from the US FDA as soon as possible based on these findings and plans to submit marketing applications to other regulatory bodies around the world.
Merck expects to produce 10 million treatments by the end of 2021, with more doses expected to be produced in 2022.
