Dishman Pharma shares soar 17% on receiving license to make TB drug

Shares of Dishman Pharmaceuticals surged as much as 17 per cent on Wednesday after the company informed BSE that it has received a license agreement from Janssen Pharmaceutica NV (Reuters)

Shares of Dishman Pharmaceuticals surged as much as 17 per cent on Wednesday after the company informed BSE that it has received a license agreement from Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) to produce the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) of SIRTURO (bedaquiline), a medicine used in the treatment of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

At 2.14 pm, the scrip was trading 16.32 per cent up at Rs 308. It opened at Rs 263 and had touched a high and low of Rs 309 and Rs 260, respectively, in trade so far. Sensex was up 0.72 per cent at 25,836.
Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs 288.90 and Rs 247 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs 2,296.64 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 61.40 per cent while institutions and non-institutions held 18.40 per cent and 20.20 per cent, respectively.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health concern in India with the World Health Organization estimating there are more than 2.8 million cases of TB. In particular, the burden of MDR-TB in India, is among the most significant in the world with an estimated 64,000 cases, and for those diagnosed with this deadly disease, fewer than half are treated successfully.

In 2008 Janssen had contracted Dishman to conduct full chemical synthesis of this API at their manufacturing facility in Bavla, India. Janssen subsequently registered Dishman as a manufacturer of API with the USFDA, European Medicines Agency and several other Asian regulatory authorities. Recently, Dishman has started supplying Janssen with the global demand of this API.

For the quarter ended June 2015, Dishman Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 37.76 crore, up 58.55 per cent, against Rs 23.81 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.