Cadila's COVID-19 vaccine by March 2021? Share hits 52-week high

Cadila Healthcare share price touched a fresh 52 week high in early trade today after Zydus Cadila said it would apply for Phase 3 clinical trials of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in December and plans to launch it by March 2021.

The stock opened with a gain of 4.42% at Rs 441 against previous close of Rs 422 on BSE. Later, the stock touched an intraday high of Rs 452.45, rising 7.13%.

The stock has gained 7.28% in last 2 days. Cadila Healthcare share is trading higher than 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages.

 In one year, the large cap share has gained 76.54% and risen 77% since the beginning of this year.

Market cap of the firm rose to Rs 46,017 crore.

A report in The Economic Times said, "If all goes well, the company expects to introduce the vaccine by March next year."

Zydus Cadila will submit results of the Phase 2 trials next week, which "will ascertain the safety, dose and efficacy of the potential vaccine", the report said.

No safety concerns were observed during initial results from the Phase 2 trials of ZyCoV-D, the company's vaccine candidate. The company plans to conduct Phase 3 trials of the vaccine on 39,000 participants.

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The pharma firm reported an over four-fold jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 473.4 crore in Q2 against Rs 107.2 crore net profit for the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

Consolidated total revenue from operations rose to Rs 3,820 crore in Q2 against Rs 3,366.6 crore for the same period a year ago.

The company has significantly reduced its net debt-by Rs 2,709 crore in the first six months of FY21, which is 40 per cent reduction from net debt reported in March 2020. The net debt as on September 30, 2020, stood at Rs 4,031 crore against Rs 6,740 crore as on March 31, 2020, the filing said.

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