Dr. Reddy's Lab sells antibiotics plant in US

The leading drug company was buzzing on Monday on the back of sale of its manufacturing facility in Bristol, Tennessee and regaining universals rights for its investigational antibacterial product DFA-02.

The antibiotics plant and related assets were sold to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Neopharma, UAE's largest pharma company. The unit focuses on manufacturing and packaging of amoxicillin-based products, including a semi-synthetic penicillin. The deal includes two facilities, a 3,90,000 sq ft unit manufacturing oral dose penicillin and a 24,000 sqft plastics-processing unit. The deal is in-line with Dr. Reddy's strategy of streamlining and optimizing the company's cost structures, globally.

Also, on Monday, the company reported the termination of license given to Armis Biopharma, Inc. for DFA-02, which is an antibacterial combination investigated for the prophylaxis of surgical site infections (SSIs). The product is broad spectrum in-situ gel to be used as an adjunct to conventional preoperative treatment. DFA-02 has demonstrated efficacy in several phase 1 and 2 clinical studies.

At 11:37 hours, the stock of Dr. Reddy's Lab was trading at Rs. 2480.85 per share, down by Rs. 49.40 or 1.95 per cent on Monday, when the benchmark index was at 36,027.60, down by 199.54 points or 0.55 per cent.