Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Photo by Bloomberg
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Photo by Bloomberg
The alliance between global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and India’s Biocon has come to an end. On Tuesday, they announced they had dissolved their commercialization agreement. Pfizer said the move was prompted by a change in its business plans. Back in 2010, the two firms struck a $350 million deal. The plan was for Biocon to make its bio-similar versions of insulin- which Pfizer would then market around the world. Biocon says it has already received close to $200 million from the deal. But investors weren’t impressed, and shares of the firm plunged 6.31% on the BSE to 250.80 on a day the Sensex rose 1.28%.
In other news, state-run oil retailers could face a dramatic rise in their subsidy burdens. On Tuesday, R.S. Butola, the chairman of Indian Oil, said under-recoveries could jump 52% to Rs2 trillion next fiscal. Government-run oil marketers face these losses because they sell fuels at below-market rates. Every litre of diesel they sell means an under-recovery of about Rs12. Even worse, every gas cylinder sold means a loss of Rs439.
And finally, Indian markets surged on Tuesday, with the Sensex touching a two-week high. The index closed 226 points higher at 17,814. And the Nifty rose 70 to 5,430.
