Biocon soars 7% on drug launch at Bangalore
BENGALURU Based Biopharmaceutical company Biocon on Thursday launched a generic version of Gilead Sciences' Hepatitis C drug, Harvoni, in India. Shares of India's largest biotechnology company zoomed 6.5% after the announcement to touch a 52-week high of Rs 513, before closing 5% higher at Rs 508 on the BSE.
The medication, CIMIVIR-L, is a fixed dose combination of Ledipasvir 90mg and Sofosbuvir 400mg, and an improved version of Gilead's drug Sovaldi. A once-a-day oral therapy will be offered to patients in India at a fraction of the global cost, Biocon said, without specifying the pricing. Mid-sized pharmaceutical company Natco Pharma, which has received a licence from Gilead to sell a generic version of the drug in India, sells a bottle of 28 tablets at about Rs 20,000. Gilead's Sovaldi is a far more effective and better-tolerated treatment than older injection products, but the cost is huge. A 12-week therapy costs $94,500 in the US, which makes it unaffordable to many.
Around 25% of the 18 million Hepatitis C virus patients in the country are indicated for Hepatitis C genotype 1. About 150 million people in the world live with chronic Hepatitis C infection, most of them in low and middle-income countries."The introduction of CIMIVIR-L will strengthen Biocon's current portfolio of virology products. It furthers our commitment to offer affordable therapy for unmet patient needs in debilitating and life-threatening conditions," Biocon marketing president Ravi Limaye said in a statement.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) recently approved the sale of Sofosbuvir-Ledipasvir combination, which is being manufactured in India under a licence from Gilead, Biocon said. Recently, Cipla also announced that it is launching Hepcvir-L, once-a-day fixed-dose oral combination therapy (Ledipasvir-Sofosbuvir) that has been approved for chronic hepatitis C patient.
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