This pharma stock hits fresh all-time high; surges 135% in a year

Shares of Unichem Laboratories, a manufacturer of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), surged more than 7% to hit a fresh all-time high of ₹464.5 in intraday trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday. The smallcap stock has risen nearly 20% in the past four sessions, as compared to a 1.7% gain in the BSE Sensex during the same period. In the last 12 months, the stock has rallied 135%, from its 52-week low of ₹197.50 on November 22, 2021, compared with a nearly 2% rise in the benchmark index BSE Sensex. The counter has also outperformed the S&P BSE Healthcare index, which dropped over 3% in a year.

On Thursday, Unichem Laboratories shares opened marginally lower at ₹427.35, against the previous closing price of ₹431.90 on the BSE. During the session so far, the stock gained as much as 7.5% to hit a record high of ₹464.5, driven by a spurt in volume trade. A total of 0.65 lakh shares changed hands over the counter on the BSE, as against the two-week average volume of 0.25 lakh stocks. The market capitalisation (m-cap) surged to ₹3,252.7 crore.

The share price of the Mumbai-headquartered company has risen more than 50% in the past two months after it received a slew of new drug application (ANDA) approvals for its drugs from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). In the last three months, the company has received ANDA approval for four of its drugs from the US FDA.

On October 14, the Mumbai-headquartered company received ANDA approval for its Extended Phenytoin Sodium Capsules USP, 100 mg from the USFDA to market a generic version of Dilantin (Phenytoin Sodium) Capsules, 100 mg, of Viatris Specialty LLC. The drug, which will be commercialised from its Ghaziabad plant (UP), is used for the treatment of tonic-clonic (grand mal) and psychomotor (temporal lobe) seizures and prevention and treatment of seizures occurring during or following neurosurgery.

On August 23, the company received nod to market a generic version of TEGRETOL (Carbamazepine) Tablet, 200 mg of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp, which is used as an anticonvulsant drug and in the treatment of the pain associated with true trigeminal neuralgia.

Besides, on August 15, the company got approval to market a generic version of SEROQUEL XR (Quetiapine) Tablet, Extended Release in strengths of 50 mg, 150 mg, 200 mg, 300 mg, and 400 mg of AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP. On August 9, it also received approval to market a generic version of NORMODYNE (Labetalol Hydrochloride) tablets, which are used for the management of hypertension.

In a separate development, rating agency ICRA, in September this year, downgraded the credit rating of the company’s bank facilities. The long-term rating on the ₹176 crore bank facilities of the company has been slashed to [ICRA] A-, while the outlook revised to stable from negative, citing adequate degree of safety regarding timely servicing of financial obligations.  

Unichem Laboratories is a homegrown pharma company engaged in manufacturing and marketing of a large basket of pharmaceutical formulations as branded generics as well as generics in several markets across the world.