Divi''s, Matrix scrip prices cross leading pharma firms'' prices

Mumbai: The scrip prices of two mid-sized domestic pharmaceutical companies — Divi's Labs and Matrix Laboratories — have crossed the stock prices of India's leading pharmaceutical corporates such as Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr Reddy's and Cipla, which are trading at over Rs 1,000 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The scrip of Divi's Labs touched an all-time high of Rs 1,475 on 24 December, registering a growth of 290 per cent since June this year. The scrip was quoting at Rs 378 on the BSE in the beginning of June 2003.

Similarly, Matrix Laboratories has registered a growth of 168 per cent in the last six months with the scrip zooming to a high of Rs 1,447. Both these scrips are currently trading higher than the pharmaceutical majors — Ranbaxy at Rs 1,066.85, Dr. Reddy's at Rs 1,414 and Cipla at Rs 1,266.60.

It is the fist time that the scrips of mid-sized pharmaceutical companies are trading above the leading and fundamentally strong pharmaceutical corporates.

According to pharmaceutical analysts, though Matrix is following the business model of Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's, its is restricted to just off-patent active pharmaceutical ingredients or bulk drugs and not aspiring to sell their own formulation in the overseas market.

V V L N Sastry, country head, Firstcall India, equity advisors, says Matrix has so far filed seven drug master files (which prove bio-equivalence of their products to a generic product) for approval to sell its products in the US market. These include Pfizer's $1.1-billion anti-fungal drug fluconazole. The company also has the patented version of the $1.5-billion Citalopram, an anti-histamine drug. Citalopram went off patent in Europe 2002.

Similarly, Divi Labs is mainly focused in contract research on process development particularly for advanced intermediates for discovery compounds for clients. Divi's is particularly working on specialisation in custom synthesis, he says.