Morepen to ink JV pact with US drug marketing firm

Sanjay Sardana

New Delhi, Nov 4: Morepen Laboratories is close to signing a joint venture (JV) agreement with a US-based generic marketing company for enhancing its presence in that market.

Morepen chairman and managing director Sushil Suri, however, declined to comment on the proposed joint venture.

The company had recently appointed international investment advisor, HSBC to identify possible strategic partners for back-to-back tie-ups with generic marketing companies in the US.

Morepen’s research and development efforts also seem to have yielded some results as the company has filed for an international patent for its anti-cholesterol drug ‘Orvastin’, which has been developed with an improved process for the preparation of amorphous atorvastatin calcium. Prior to this, Morepen had filed two process patents for drugs belonging to the dermatology and antibiotic segment.

The company is also trying to encash on the anthrax disease scare and has already doubled production of ciprofloxacin after it received inquiries for the bulk drug from several companies.

As has been the case with some Indian pharma companies, Morepen’s shares are believed to have caught the attention of foreign institutional investors in the last few weeks.

Market sources said two FIIs have picked up substantial chunks of shares from the market. The company’s share price has shot up from Rs 50 to Rs 85. There has been a sudden spurt in trading volumes as well, which have shot up to over 10 lakh shares a day from around 1-2 lakh shares a day a few weeks back.

Mr Suri, however, said the company has no plans to directly offer stake to FIIS. "We are not keen to offer stake to short-term players like institutional investors, but instead the company is looking at long-term strategic partners who can also add value to the company," he added.

According to market analysts tracking the pharma sector, FII has, of late, shown interest in the second rung pharma stocks.

The BSE pharma index, tracking the pharmaceutical stocks, over the past few weeks has risen sharply from 1084 points on September 17, 2001 to 1219 on October 29 and has now dropped marginally to around 1205 points.