Cipla's office in Bangalore
Cipla's office in BangaloreOfficial website of Cipla Ltd

Meditab Specialities Private Limited (MSPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cipla Ltd has informed BSE regarding its acquisition of stake in Mabpharm Private Limited (Mabpharm).

Earlier, Meditab held 25 percent stake in Mabpharm, which specializes in developing monoclonal antibodies for healing cancer and auto-immune diseases.

Now, Cipla has acquired the remaining 75 percent stake of Mabpharm for an undisclosed amount. 

Earlier this month, Cipla announced that it would invest $65 million (₹300 crore) to acquire stake in India's Mabpharm and Chinese firm BioMab.

Along with Cipla, Aurobindo, Laurus Labs and Emcure have also received a nod from Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to manufacture HIV medicine- Atazanavir (ATV) and Dolutegravir (DTG) to deploy the accessibility of generic HIV drugs in developing nations.

However, an agreement to manufacture generic HIV drugs was initially permitted to Chinese manufacturer Desano, which was later followed by Cipla, Mylan and Micro labs. Hence, MPP has permitted seven pharmaceutical companies to manufacture HIV Drugs for poor nations.

"The HIV field needs new drugs all the time due to the development of resistance and treatment failure," Dr. Jaideep Gogtay, Chief Medical Officer of Cipla said in a press release.

Arvind Vasudeva, Chief Executive Officer of Aurobindo expressed his pleasure in the release of generic HIV drugs in developing countries. . "This medicine offers new options for people living with HIV who are no longer able to take their first HIV regimens and its distribution in resource-poor settings is crucial," he said.

On Friday, Stock price of Cipla Ltd was recorded trading at ₹442. The share price rose to ₹5.15 or 1.18 percent after the announcement of its acquisition of Mabpharm. Cipla has the market cap of ₹350,916.81 million. But, stock price of Aurobindo Pharma Ltd recorded loss of ₹12.50 at ₹730.90 per stock.