Novartis India is up over 2% at Rs.668, with an intra day high at Rs.697. Its 52-week high is at Rs.760.

The stock is up after its parent company got USFDA got approval for Cosentyx, a new psoriasis drug to treat adults with moderate to severe cases of the dermatologic disease.

The drug has been seen by some analysts as a potential blockbuster, industry jargon for medicines that generate more than $1 billion in sales annually. Demand for new treatments for psoriasis and related disease is high. Novartis has said that psoriasis is estimated to afflict more than 125 million people world-wide.