Dr Reddy's perks up 17% on Zocor ruling

DALAL STREET SPIKES

Dr Reddy's Laboratories jumped 17.47 per cent to Rs 1,681.95 after a US court ruled in its favour in a case involving the generic version of Merck's cholesterol drug Zocor. Around 4.71 lakh shares were traded on the BSE as against average eighty thousand shares.

On Monday, a federal court ruled that the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) had unfairly denied Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' petition to exclusively market generic forms of Merck's $4 billion drug Zocor.

In February, Dr Reddy's had struck a deal with US-based Merck to sell generic versions of Zocor, if some other company won a 180-day exclusivity deal after the patents expire. The patent on Zocor, or the generic simvastatin, expires on June 23.