Pharma stocks outperform as Covid-19 cases spike; what's next?

The pharmaceutical sector emerged as the lone gainer on the National Stock Exchange despite heavy sell-off due to rising coronavirus infections across the country. The Nifty Pharma index closed 0.17% higher at 13,256, while the benchmark NSE Nifty index settled 258.40 points lower at 14,359.

With a rally of 2.28%, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories emerged as the top gainer in the index. It was followed by Aurobindo Pharma (up 2.09%), Lupin (up 1.53%) and Cipla (up 1.27%). On the other hand, Divi’s Labs, Torrent Pharma, Sun Pharma, Alkem Labs, Biocon and Cadila Healthcare declined between 0.08%-2.02%.

Commenting on the pharmaceutical sector, VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, “The market is driven by the hope that in this race between the pandemic and vaccination, the latter will ultimately win. But what price we will have to pay for this is clouded in profound uncertainty. Pharma and IT could be safe defensive plays at this juncture. Investors can move on to economy-facing stocks when the daily Covid cases start steadily coming down.”

In the broader market, Jubilant Pharmova advanced over 6% to Rs 769 after it informed bourses after the subsidiary of Jubilant Pharma informed bourses about the development of a novel oral formulation of Remdesivir with successful completion of safety and pharmacokinetic/absorption studies in animals and healthy human volunteers.

Yash Gupta Equity Research Associate, Angel Broking said, “We expect this to be a very short-term benefit for Jubilant Pharmova, as we expect more players to develop this medicine for Covid 19 and once cases in India come down the use of remdesivir will also come down.”

Remdesivir is the first and the only antiviral drug fully approved by the US FDA for the treatment of patients with Covid-19 requiring hospitalisation. Some reports suggest that the government is planning to double the production of antiviral drug remdesivir to around 3 lakh vials per day over the next 15 days, to make it available readily for the treatment of Covid-19.

In another update, NPPA on Saturday said pharmaceutical companies like Cadila Healthcare, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Cipla have reduced the price of their respective brands of remdesivir injection (100mg/vial).

According to the details shared by the NPPA, Cadila Healthcare has reduced the price of its REMDAC (remdesivir 100 mg) injection to Rs 899 from Rs 2,800 earlier. Similarly, Syngene International has cut the price of its brand RemWin to Rs 2,450 from Rs 3,950 earlier. Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has cut the price of REDYX, which used to cost Rs 5,400 earlier to Rs 2,700 now.

Similarly, Cipla has reduced the maximum retail price of its CIPREMI brand to Rs 3,000 from Rs 4,000 earlier. Mylan has also reduced the price of its brand from Rs 4,800 to Rs 3,400 and Jubilant Generics has cut the price of its remdesivir brand to Rs 3,400 from Rs 4,700 earlier.

Going forward, Ajit Mishra, VP-Research, Religare Broking believes that the Covid-19 situation and the pace of vaccination would be a key monitorable for the markets. “Further, the earnings announcement from select Nifty majors would induce stock-specific volatility. We maintain our cautious stance in the near term,” he said.