Glenmark Pharma share gains 9% on nod for trial of Covid-19 tablets

Shares of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals rose almost 9% on Thursday after the Indian drugmaker received an approval from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct clinical trials with antiviral drug favipiravir, seen as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals share price rose 8.89% to Rs 359 against previous close of Rs 329 on BSE.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals stock opened with a gain of 8.1% at Rs 356.40.

Glenmark Pharma share is trading higher than its 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages. The mid cap stock has lost 46.52% in last one year and fallen 1.81% since the beginning of this year.

However, it has gained 74% in last one month.

Market cap of the firm rose to Rs 9,650 crore on BSE.  Total 4.63 lakh shares changed hands amounting to turnover of Rs 16.09 crore.

The stock hit its 52 week high of Rs 639.35 on May 2, 2019 and 52 week low of Rs 168 on March 13, 2020.

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"After having successfully developed the API and the formulations, Glenmark is all geared to immediately begin clinical trials on favipiravir on COVID-19 patients in India," Sushrut Kulkarni, executive vice-president for Global R&D, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, said in a statement.

Favipiravir  has  demonstrated  activity  against  influenza  viruses  and  has  been  approved  in Japan for the treatment of novel influenza virus infections. Recently in the past few months, post  the  outbreak  of  COVID-19,  multiple  clinical  trials  have  been  initiated  on  COVID-19 patients in China, Japan and in the US, the Indian pharma firm said.

On Wednesday, Strides Pharma said it has commenced export of antiviral Strides Favipiravir tablets for treatment of coronavirus.    

Strides has developed Favipiravir tablets in 400mg and 200mg strengths for convenient dosage administration.

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The product is currently being exported to GCC countries to treat patients under their treatment program for Covid-19. Strides will also immediately apply to Indian drug authorities to commence necessary studies and make the drug available to Indian patients expeditiously, said the pharma firm.