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Dr. Reddy's Inks Deal With Gilead Sciences for Remdesivir

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Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. ((RDY - Free Report) ) has entered into a non-exclusive Licensing Agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD - Free Report) to register, manufacture and sell the latter’s experimental candidate, remdesivir, a potential treatment for COVID-19, in 127 countries including India.

Dr. Reddy’s will receive technology transfer from Gilead for manufacturing of this drug. Dr. Reddy’s will be responsible for the manufacturing scale-up of the drug and need to obtain regulatory approval for marketing of the same in respective countries.

Remdesivir, an investigational antiviral therapy developed by Gilead, received Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA to treat hospitalised patients with severe COVID-19 illness.

Shares of Dr. Reddy’s have increased 29.2% year to date against the industry’s 10.1% decline.

 

In June 2020, Gilead reported mixed results from a late-stage study on remdesivir in hospitalized patients with moderate COVID-19 pneumonia. The open-label phase III SIMPLE study evaluated five-day and 10-day courses of remdesivir plus standard of care as compared to only standard of care in these patients.

Data showed that patients in the five-day remdesivir treatment group were 65% more likely to have clinical improvement at day 11 compared with those in the standard of care group. However, the odds of improvement in clinical status with the 10-day treatment course of remdesivir versus standard of care alone were favorable but did not attain statistical significance.

Meanwhile, several marketed drugs like Sanofi,/Regeneron’s IL-6 inhibitor Kevzara, Roche’s (RHHBY - Free Report) IL-6 inhibitor, Actemra, Incyte/Novarts’ JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor, Jakafi, AstraZeneca’s (AZN - Free Report) BTK inhibitor, Calquence, Amgen’s PDE4 inhibitor and Otezla,  among others, are being evaluated to treat respiratory complications associated with COVID-19, which is also the need of the hour.

Zacks Rank

Dr. Reddy’s currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Stong Buy) stocks here.

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