Debut darling

Mumbai, July 18: Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (Sparc), the demerged arm of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, made its debut on the stock exchanges today. Sparc is the first drug research firm to be traded on the bourses.

Sparc got listed at Rs 87.15 on the Bombay Stock Exchange against its base price of Rs 72.70, a gain of nearly 20 per cent.

A strong investor interest in the company was evident from the fact that the share was locked in at the upper circuit limit for most of the day. The counter saw around 59,000 trades today and the share ended at Rs 87.15 on the BSE. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the company got listed at Rs 87.20 and over 11 lakh shares were traded.

Sun Pharma had spun off its research activities into a separate arm. The research activities included development of new chemical entities (NCEs) and novel drug delivery systems (NDDS). Shareholders of Sun Pharma got a share of Sparc for every one held. Sparc has four projects each in NCE and NDDS in the pipeline.

Analysts feel that though the potential for Sparc is positive, benefits to shareholders are likely to accrue in the medium to long term.

Sun Pharma had said Phase III clinical trials for three of its new drugs are likely to be concluded in 2009.