Bajaj Healthcare share price surges as DRDO approves covid-related drug, stock up 40% in 9 sessions

Bajaj Healthcare shares jumped almost 11 per cent to hit a new 52-week high of Rs 1,009.80 on the BSE intraday trade today, as the company gets approval from DRDO to manufacture and market a medication, which will be used to treat Covid-19 patients.

The stock ended almost eight per cent higher, near day’s high level at Rs 978.25 on the BSE, as against around 1 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex at the close. 

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Bajaj Healthcare on Wednesday said that the company received a licence from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to manufacture and market ‘2-Deoxy-D-Glucose’ (2-DG) medication, used for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

In its filing to exchanges, the company said, “2-DG helps in the faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence. The drug works by selectively accumulating in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production. It can be administered only upon prescription and under the supervision of a qualified physician to hospitalised moderate to severe covid patients as an adjunct therapy to the existing standard of care.” 

This is a second such approval, the company has received within the last 15 days to manufacture the covid related drugs. it is a leading manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), intermediates, and formulations.

In the past three months, the scrip has zoomed over 120 per cent as compared to a 7 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. And, it has been trading higher for the ninth straight day.

Earlier, Bajaj Healthcare had announced that it has moved the Indian Patent Office requesting to grant a compulsory license for manufacturing & supply of Covid-19 drug “Baricitinib” (API and formulation) On June 28, 2021. Since the announcement, the counter has jumped over 40 per cent from Rs 720 per share on the BSE.

Currently, Eli Lilly and Company has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the distribution and emergency use of “Baricitinib” to be used in combination with Remdesivir in hospitalized adult and pediatric patients aged more than two years with suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 requiring supplemental oxygen, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), Bajaj Healthcare had said in a statement.