Natco Pharma soars 12% on Nexavar case win

Shares of Natco Pharma rallied as much as 11.7 percent in early trade on Tuesday as the company won Nexavar case against Bayer.

German multinational Bayer lost its fight to protect the patent on its cancer drug Nexavar. The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) dismissed Bayer's plea and allowed Natco Pharma to sell copycat version of Nexavar.

This is a huge blow to global drug makers and their monopolies on high-priced medicines. The appellate board raised concerns over the high cost and accessibility of Nexavar when it ruled in favour of Natco.

Nexavar is sold for over Rs 8,800 per month by Natco while Bayer sells its for Rs 2.8 lakh a month. However, the appellate board ordered Natco to pay 7 percent royalty on sales of Nexavar to bayer. Natco currently pays only 6 percent royalty.

Bayer in a statement said that they strongly disagreed with the conclusions of the IPAB. "We are committed to protect patents for Nexavar and will rigorously continue to defend their intellectual property rights within the Indian legal system. They will pursue the case in front of High Court in Mumbai with a writ petition," Bayer added.

At 10:21 hours IST, shares of Natco Pharma went up 4.71 percent to Rs 445.30 amid large volumes on Bombay Stock Exchange.