Sun Pharma to test two drugs for treatment of Covid-19, stock up 3.5%

India’s largest drug maker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is readying to start trials on a few drugs that have emerged as potential treatment candidates for Covid-19. This includes an anti-coagulant and anti-inflammatory drug nafamostat and another plant-based dengue drug candidate that Sun Pharma was developing along with government research institutes.
The development comes at a time when several Indian companies are lining up testing of potential drug candidates on Covid-19 patients. Mumbai-based Glenmark, too, has started trials on favipiravir, an influenza drug that has shown some promise.
On Friday, Sun Pharma said it received the nod from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to initiate a clinical trial with nafamostat mesilate on Covid-19 patients. These will be phase II trials on about 40 patients. The drug is approved in Japan for improvement of acute symptoms of pancreatitis as well as for treatment of DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation). Basically, it is an anti-coagulant drug that has potential anti-inflammatory and anti-viral activities against Covid-19.
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Sun Pharma’s stock was up 3.5 per cent on the BSE on Friday. A group of scientists from University of Tokyo, Japan, and Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Germany, have demonstrated that nafamostat, at very low concentrations, suppresses a protein that the Covid-19 virus uses to enter human lung cells. Another group from Institute Pasteur, South Korea, also published data comparing antiviral efficacy of 24 drugs and nafamostat, against SARSCoV-2 in in-vitro studies. The International Journal of Infectious Diseases said, in a May 26 report, three cases of Covid-19 pneumonia improved after treatment with nafamostat and that preliminary findings show that this drug can be considered for use in elderly patients with Covid-19 pneumonia.

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At present, there are three clinical trials underway to test nafamostat in Covid-19 patients around the world. Sun Pharma plans to start the India trials soon, but has not given a timeline for completion of the same.
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Dilip Shanghvi, managing director, Sun Pharma, said: “Sun Pharma is evaluating potential targets that can be explored for treating Covid-19 patients. Nafamostat has shown promising data against SARS-CoV-2 virus in in-vitro studies conducted by three independent groups of scientists in Europe, Japan, and South Korea. We believe it holds promise in the treatment of Covid-19 patients.” Nafamostat is currently not sold in India. Sun Pharma has initiated manufacturing of both, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the finished product of nafamostat in India, using technology from Pola Pharma Japan.
Meanwhile, Sun Pharma has also received the DCGI nod to conduct clinical trials on a repurposed dengue drug that it was developing with government research institutes. In 2016, the company had started working on this botanical medicine with the Department of Biotechnology - International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (DBT-ICGEB) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research- Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM).
In April, the company submitted a proposal to the DCGI to conduct clinical trials to test the efficacy of the drug derived from plant sources on Covid-19. Sources claimed the company received the regulator’s nod last month. The trials are yet to start.

China's war on healthcare costs lures India's biggest drugmaker Sun Pharma

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. is scouting for a partner in China to help it win a larger piece of the world’s second-largest drug market, where the government is on a mission to drive down healthcare costs.
With recovery underway in its US business, Sun Pharma’s billionaire founder Dilip Shanghvi is honing in on China and believes market watchers are underestimating the potential there for India’s largest drugmaker.

“There is a big opportunity for us,” Shanghvi said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait in Mumbai on Thursday. “That would create a significant new revenue stream, which is not factored in our valuation when analysts look at it.”
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China has rolled out an ambitious multi-city bulk procurement program that’s driving down prices and providing an opening for Indian manufacturers like Sun Pharma to compete. It’s importing more drugs, reimbursing more and speeding up approvals of new medicines to ensure they reach patients faster.
The policy push comes as many generic drugmakers are still reeling from a brutal price war in the world’s biggest drug market, the US While Sun Pharma’s Indian rivals, like Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. and Cipla Ltd., are already expanding in the Asian nation, Shanghvi has mostly kept mum about his plans there.
Scaling Up
India’s top drugmaker will start scaling up its China business in six to nine months, according to Shanghvi. The unit will contribute “some percentage” to Sun’s $4 billion of overall sales within three years from almost nothing right now, he added.
The $160 billion Chinese drug market “is now a focus for Indian generics” as U.S.-approved drugs are cleared faster, Jefferies analyst Piyush Nahar wrote in a Feb. 27 note.
“While the reforms make China an attractive market, ramp-up and profitability will have significant challenges,” Nahar wrote. “Unlike US, distribution is important in China and will need a local partner and higher spend.”
Analysts are split on the prospects of Sun Pharma’s stock, which has lagged the rise in the S&P BSE Sensex this year. In the last four years, it has plummeted nearly 52 percent compared to the Sensex’s 42 percent climb.
Sun Pharma’s large portfolio of US-approved products should help the drugmaker ramp up its China business with little investment, Shanghvi said.
“We see enormous interest in China for products that we have global rights for,” Shanghvi said, adding that the company “would be comfortable making significant financial commitments,” in the Asian nation longer term.