Shares of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, a major pharmaceutical company, hit an all-time high on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, after the company announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kainomyx and its subsidiary Aurigene Pharmaceutical to develop an anti-malarial drug.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

The stock touched an all-time high of Rs 7,107.45 at around 10:00 am on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) website.

The potential partnership aims to accelerate the discovery and development of novel therapeutics, with each company leveraging its respective strengths and expertise:

  • Kainomyx will lead the technical strategy and associated aspects for drug discovery and clinical phases.
  • Aurigene will focus on developing cost-effective and scalable drug chemistry.
  • Dr Reddy's Laboratories will bring its regulatory and market access expertise to the program as it evolves.

According to Deepak Sapra, CEO – API and Services, Dr. Reddy’s Labs said that public health and access is a strategic area for us and malaria continues to be a very important disease that needs innovative as well as affordable medicines.

"The MoU with Kainomyx is a promising step in that direction and towards improving global health outcomes and delivering on Dr. Reddy’s vision to reach 1.5 billion patients by 2030," Sapra added.

Akhil Ravi, CEO, Aurigene Pharmaceutical said, "We are excited to collaborate with Dr. James and the Kainomyx team given their expertise in bringing innovative medicines to market. We share the same vision of addressing global health issues by serving neglected populations."

James Spudich, Executive Chairman of Kainomyx, stated that new drug discovery for Malaria and other parasitic diseases is essential because drug resistance to existing therapeutics is rapidly developing. Through our decades of work, we have developed a deep understanding of how cytoskeletal proteins work.

"Cytoskeletal proteins are essential for all living organisms, and we are exploiting this to specifically target the cytoskeleton for treatment of Malaria. I am delighted that in our molecules’ journey to market we will be forming a partnership with Dr. Reddy’s and Aurigene who have demonstrated their experience and expertise through their work in public health," James said.

In the last year, Dr Reddy's Labs stock has surged almost 20 per cent, although it has not outperformed the Nifty50 index, which rose 27 per cent during the same period.