Cipla breathes easy

Cipla is the top gainer on the BSE, jumping up to an intraday high at Rs.447.95, surging almost 8.5%. Its UC for today at 10% stands at Rs.454.90.

The company had some very good news to share. For any company, when working on a new product, it is work of years of R&D and thus when one reaches the milestone of clinical completion, it’s a great news.

The company had been conducting the Phase-3 study for evaluating the safety and efficacy of the equivalent of generic of Glaxo SmithKline Plc.’s respiratory drug Advair Diskus. Thus study was conduced over a period of 15 months at over 100 sites in the US enrolling 1400 asthma patients. And in the first attempt itself, Cipla had a successful clinical completion.

This product is indicated to treat asthma in patients 4 years and older as a twice-daily prescription medicine and in long term to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both, for better breathing and fewer flare-ups.

According to IQVIA (IMS Health), Advair Diskus and its generic equivalents had US sales of approximately US$2.9bn for the 12-month period ending February 2020.

While it’s a complex drug and it might take 2-3 years to get all the regulations in place, once this does come through, it is expected to add around 10% to Cipla’s earnings.