Shilpa Medicare jumps 26% in 2 days on tie-up with DRL for Covid vaccine

Shares of Shilpa Medicare rose 13 per cent to Rs 574.90 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Tuesday, up 26 per cent in the past two trading days, after the company on Monday said that it has tied up with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories for production of Sputnik V, a two-dose Covid-19 vaccine.

“Shilpa Medicare, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Shilpa Biologicals Private Limited (SBPL), has entered into a three-year Definitive Agreement with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited (DRL) for production-supply of the Sputnik V vaccine from its integrated biologics R&D cum manufacturing centre at Dharwad, Karnataka,” the company said in an exchange filing.

DRL has partnered with HVIRDIF for the clinical development of the vaccine and has distribution rights in geographies, including India. DRL will facilitate the transfer of the sputnik technology to SBPL. Under the agreement, SBPL will be responsible for manufacturing the vaccine, while DRL is responsible for the distribution and marketing of the vaccine in its marketing territories.

The targeted production of the dual vector Sputnik V for the first 12 months is 50 million doses (50 million of Component 1 and 50 million of component 2), from the date of start of commercial production.

The companies are also exploring the option to manufacture Sputnik Light, a single-dose version of the vaccine in the near future.

The company views biologics as a strategic growth area and has made significant investments in setting up a high end, flexible biologics facility in Dharwad to cater to the requirements of the fast-growing biologics field, that include the adenoviral, subunit & DNA vaccines, Monoclonal antibodies and fusion proteins, the company said.

Shilpa Medicare is in the manufacturing and supplying of affordable API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) and formulation globally in different regulated markets.

At 10:44 am, the stock was trading 8 per cent higher at Rs 548 on the BSE, as compared to a 1.15 per cent gain in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined around 2.9 million equity shares had changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE so far. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 692.45 on August 11, 2020.

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