Health index stays firm as Sensex tanks

Even as the benchmark Sensex inched down by 0.59 per cent and most sectoral indices fell, the BSE Healthcare index gained by 1.27 per cent on Wednesday.

This gain was driven by the rise in stocks such as Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL), Cadila Healthcare, Lupin and Themis Medicare.

DRL went up by 9.62 per cent on the BSE and closed at 1489.35, on the back of reports that the on-going dispute with Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co over the multibillion-dollar blood thinner Plavix could be settled out of court. If this happens, it could be a big positive for DRL.

This comes after the above two companies settled a dispute with generic drugmaker Apotex Inc to keep patent protection on Plavix till 2011.

Under terms of the proposed settlement Sanofi-Aventis would grant Apotex a royalty bearing licence to market clopidogrel bisulfate, a chemical name for Plavix in US once the patent expires in 2011.

The positive sentiment percolated to other stocks as well. Other healthcare stocks that gained include Cadila Healthcare (up 2.61 per cent after touching a 52 week high of Rs 685 intra day), Lupin (up 3.2 per cent to Rs 974.5), Strides Arcolab (up 2.42 per cent to Rs 355.5), Themis Medicare (up 6.2 per cent to Rs 244.15) and Cipla (up 1.1 per cent to Rs 608.8.).

Yesterday, the announcement sent shares of Bristol up 9 per cent and moved Sanofi shares more than 7 percent higher in after-hours trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Manish Sonthalia, VP-equity strategy of Motilal Oswal, says, "The scrip rose as Sanofi Aventis and Bristol Myers Squibb went for an out of court settlement with Apotex for patent protection on Plavix.

This settlement has implications for another such patent dispute with DRL. This settlement would be worth $ 0.5 billion to $ one billion for the next six years for all the four players."

Mitesh Shah, assistant vice-president of Brics, says, "The Indian mid-cap pharma stocks that have underperformed in the past have started catching up."