Shares of drug discovery biopharma company Suven Life Sciences are up nearly 6% at Rs. 219 per share, with strong volumes, despite the broader markets being down close to a percent. About 14.50 lakh shares have been traded in the first half of trade today, against two-week average traded quantity of 5 lakh shares, on both the exchanges.

Company has secured 5 product patents, one each in China, Israel, Mexico, Singapore and Sri Lanka, for new chemical entities (NCEs) for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Parkinson, Schizophernia and Huntington’s disease. With these new patents, Suven has total of 17 granted patents from China, 7 from Israel, 20 from Mexico, 21 from Singapore and 11 from Sri Lanka. Earlier this month, company’s NCE SUVN-D4010 has commenced phase 1 clinical trial in US.

Since company has presence in drug discovery for CNs and CRAMS, its revenue tends to be lumpy. For FY15, company reported topline of Rs. 521 crore and bottomline of Rs. 109 crore, leading to EPS of Rs. 9.04. Share is currently trading at a PE multiple of 24 times, its historic earnings.