Cipla Limited, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., Emcure Pharmaceuticals Limited , Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited , announced today that the five companies will collaborate for the clinical trial of the investigational oral anti-viral drug Molnupiravir for the treatment of mild COVID-19 in an outpatient setting in India.
Pharma Majors Collaborate for Clinical Trial of Investigational Oral Anti-Viral Drug Molnupiravir for COVID-19
CIPLA EQ, referred to as “Cipla”), Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. (BSE: 500124, NSE: DRREDDY, NYSE: RDY, NSEIFSC: DRREDDY, hereafter referred to as “Dr. Reddy’s”), Emcure Pharmaceuticals Limited (hereafter referred to as “Emcure”), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (Reuters: SUN.BO, Bloomberg: SUNP IN, NSE: SUNPHARMA, BSE: 524715, “Sun Pharma” and includes its subsidiaries and/or associate companies), and Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited (“Torrent”, BSE: 500420, NSE: TORNTPHARM), announced today that the five companies will collaborate for the clinical trial of the investigational oral anti-viral drug Molnupiravir for the treatment of mild COVID-19 in an outpatient setting in India.
Between March and April this year, these five pharma companies had individually entered into a non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreement with Merck Sharpe Dohme (MSD) to manufacture and supply Molnupiravir to India and over 100 low and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The five pharma companies have entered into a collaboration agreement, wherein the parties will jointly sponsor, supervise and monitor the clinical trial in India. As per the directive of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, Dr. Reddy’s will conduct the clinical trial using its product, and the other four pharma companies will be required to demonstrate equivalence of their product to the product used by Dr. Reddy’s in its clinical trial.
Following the clinical trial protocol approval given by the Drugs Controller General of India, the clinical trial will be conducted for the treatment of mild COVID-19 in an outpatient setting. It is expected to take place between June and September this year across India with the recruitment of 1,200 patients. Such collaboration for a clinical trial is a first of its kind within the Indian pharma industry, and will aim to investigate yet another line of treatment in the collective fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. On successful completion of the clinical trial, each company will independently approach the regulatory authorities for approval to manufacture and supply Molnupiravir for the treatment of COVID-19 in India.
Molnupiravir is an oral anti-viral that inhibits the replication of multiple RNA viruses including SARS-CoV-2. It is presently being studied by MSD, through a collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, in a Phase III trial for the treatment of non-hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 globally.
Cipla
"Cipla Limited is supporting Moderna, Inc. with the regulatory approval and importation of vaccines to be donated to India. At this stage, there is no definitive agreement on commercial supplies.”
Cyient Earns Partner-level Status in John Deere's Achieving Excellence Supplier Program
Cyient, a global engineering and digital technology solutions company, today announced that it has earned Partner-Level status in the John Deere Achieving Excellence (AE) Program for 2020. This is Deere & Company's highest supplier rating, awarded to companies for outstanding performance in product and service quality and commitment to continuous improvement.
Cyient is a supplier of multiple services to John Deere's operations in India, including product design, simulation and analysis, technical publications, manufacturing engineering, cost management and cost analysis, and application development and maintenance.
"We are delighted to be recognized as "Partner-Level Supplier" by Deere & Company. Our collaborative approach and continual high-performance levels have enabled us to evolve from a Supplierto a Partner level with John Deere," said Beatrice Lippus, Vice President and Head -Automotive and Off-Highway Sector, Cyient. "John Deere has been a strategic customer for us for almost a decade in our engineeringjourney. We look forward to many more years of collaboration and leveraging each other's strengths to expand this relationship further," said Karthik Natarajan, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Cyient.
Suppliers who participate in the Achieving Excellence Program are evaluated annually in several key performance categories, including quality, cost management, delivery, technical support, and wavelength as a measure of responsiveness.
IRFC
Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited (“IRFC” or the “Company”) the dedicated market borrowing arm of the Indian Railways posted profit growth of 126% on YoY basis for Q4 FY 2020-21 to stand at Rs. 1,482.55 crore vs. Rs. 654.63 crore reported in Q4FY2020.
The net profit for FY2020-21 grew by 38.34% to Rs. 4,416.13 Crore as against Rs. 3,192.06 Crore for the corresponding financial year ended 31st March, 2020. The total revenue from operation grew by 17.50% on YoY basis for the same period to stand at Rs. 15,770.47 Crore.
The annual disbursement for IRFC grew by 46.19% on YoY basis from Rs. 71,392 crore in FY 2019- 20 to Rs. 1,04,369 crore for the FY 2020-21. The Assets Under Management (AUM) for FY2020- 21 stands at Rs. 3,60,079 crore as against Rs. 2,66,137 crore registering a growth of 35.29% on YoY basis.
The capital adequacy ratio of IRFC continues to remain strong at 415.85% for FY 2020-21 as against 395.39% for FY 2019-20. The Company continues to raise funds at the most competitive rates and terms both from the domestic and overseas financial markets which has helped to keep its cost of borrowing low.
Corporate Social Responsibility remains to be a focal area for IRFC as the company spent Rs. 93.44 crore for FY 2020-21 as compared to Rs. 49.45 crore for FY 2019-20.
Commenting on the financial results, Shri Amitabh Banerjee, Chairman and Managing Director, IRFC, said, “IRFC continued to show strong growth momentum both in terms of revenue and profit during the financial year driven by the massive investment outlay of Indian Railways which is on an expansion and modernization drive. There will be sustained growth in revenue and profitability going forward as a major portion of the funding requirement of Indian Railways is to be met through IRFC.”
RELIANCE
ADNOC and Reliance Sign Strategic Partnership for World-Scale Chemical Projects at TA’ZIZ in Ruwais
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) today announced that Reliance Industries Limited (Reliance), has signed an agreement to join a new worldscale chlor-alkali, ethylene dichloride and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production facility at TA’ZIZ in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. The agreement capitalizes on growing demand for these critical industrial raw materials and leverages the strengths of ADNOC and Reliance as global industrial and energy leaders. The project will be constructed in the TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone, which is a joint venture between ADNOC and ADQ.
The agreement continues the momentum of ADNOC’s downstream and industry growth plans in line with ADNOC’s 2030 strategy. Petrochemical, refining and gas growth projects are currently under construction, with a number of projects also recently completed across the downstream and industry portfolio. ADNOC is gearing up for growth with TA’ZIZ, the world-scale chemicals production hub and industrial ecosystem based in Ruwais, with investment in excess of AED 18 billion and a number of further growth projects in the downstream and industry sector. Since 2018, ADNOC has attracted significant foreign direct investment from international partners in the downstream business including refining, fertilizers and gas pipelines.
Under the terms of the agreement, TA’ZIZ and Reliance will construct an integrated plant, with capacity to produce 940 thousand tons of chlor-alkali, 1.1 million tons of ethylene dichloride and 360 thousand tons of PVC annually
TCS
TCS Ranked #1 for Overall Innovation in Telecom, Media & Technology Services by HFS Research
“TCS is helping customers in the TMT sector realize their growth and transformation aspirations, leveraging its investments in research and innovation, intellectual property, contextual knowledge, and expertise in next-gen technologies to develop differentiated solutions. The combinatorial power of TCS TwinX™ and TCS HOBS™, empowers TMT companies to rapidly experiment, simulate and launch new products and services, and enhance the customer experience across the lifecycle,” according to Kamal Bhadada, Business Group Head, Communications, Media and Information Services, TCS. “This recognition is a true testament to our investments in innovation, our execution capabilities, and our customer-centricity that help us drive purpose-led digital transformations for customers.”
With over two decades of consulting and technology experience with TMT companies, TCS provides consulting services and domain solutions, powered by strategic investments in products and platforms and its Co-innovation Network. TCS is enabling TMT companies to transform customer experience and drive growth by building a digital core through technologies such as cloud, IoT, data, agile and AI; creating innovative business models driven by innovation and integration of best practices across industries; and by adopting ecosystems as an operating model to transform and grow. Two key platforms at the core of the business transformation journey for TMT companies are:
TCS TwinX: Creates a digital twin of the enterprise’s entire value chain ie customers, products, processes, partners and resources along with their interrelationships. Once modelled as twins, TwinX enables enterprises to simulate behaviour in response to decisions. The solution offers significant empowerment to business decision-makers to experiment and evaluate their decisions in a risk averse manner by testing multiple hypothesis through digital twin simulations before zeroing in on the right one. TCS TwinX can simulate hypothesis in several strategic areas such as new product launches, media mix and campaign design, customer lifetime value maximization, value chain optimization, business growth and transformation, fraud control and management, and risk analysis and mitigation.
TCS HOBS: A next-generation digital business ecosystem platform that helps TMT companies address the complexity of managing, orchestrating, and monetizing multi-partner offerings across multiple channels. With subscription management as a core capability, the platform also provides offerings around data monetization and device management. TCS HOBS delivers as-a-service subscription models with ecosystem orchestration and complex multi-partner product bundling capabilities.