AstraZeneca Pharma India plans to launch cancer drug; stock opens positive

Pharmaceutical player, AstraZeneca Pharma India (AZPIL) announced on Thursday after the market hours that it is planning to launch Acalabrutinib 100 mg capsules, a cancer drug with the name Calquence, on October 21, 2020 in India. Reacting to this news, the stock rose nearly 1.2 per cent during the early trading session on Friday.

Acalabrutinib 100 mg capsules (Calquence) are used to treat patients suffering from mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) especially those, who have received at least one prior therapy. It is also used for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL).

The company is engaged in the business of manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products in healthcare segments namely gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, cancer, respiratory, neurosciences, and infection.

On the sales front, the company’s therapeutic area wise revenue break up is 45.2 per cent from cardiovascular drugs, 38.5 per cent from oncology, 14.8 per cent from respiratory and 1.5 per cent from diabetes.

At 11.25 am on Friday, the share was trading up by 0.71 per cent at Rs 4,297. The stock gave 63 per cent YTD returns. It increased 2.2x since March, recovering its 52-week low of Rs 1,888. Besides, the stock has a 52-week high of Rs 4,970 on BSE.